Fiorina: ‘It is not fair’ that public workers are ‘so rich’

[Julian Englis]

Source: Raw Story

Carly Fiorina, who reportedly stood to receive more than $42 million after being ousted at HP in 2005, says that public workers should receive less benefits because “it is not fair” that unions are “so rich.”

During a Sunday panel segment on NBC, MSNBC host Al Sharpton asserted that Congress must agree to raise taxes on the wealthy before cutting spending.

“This is about fairness,” he explained. “Why do we need to need to deal with the tax on the rich first? Because we must ensure Americans we are dealing with fairness. We keep talking about shared sacrifice, there was not shared wealth and shared prosperity. So, you’re asking people that didn’t enjoy the good times to share in paying for the tab that they never enjoyed.”

“Let us accept Rev. Al’s point and the president’s point about fairness,” Fiorina replied. “But equally, it is not fair that public employee union pensions and benefits are so rich now that cities and states are going bankrupt and college tuition is going up 25 and 30 percent or police and firefighters are being cut. There’s a lot that isn’t fair right now.”






Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/11/25/fiorina-it-is-not-fair-that-public-workers-are-so-rich/

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In other news, while heading HP Ms. Fiorina drove HP into the ground as HP if were a lawn dropped from the stratosphere over a bog.

[Permanut]

1. The demonizing of the unions is working..

and is continuing, and the people who would be helped the most by unions are convinced that unions are evil. George Orwell was right again.

[Roy Rolling]

22. "Fair" ?

There is no concept of "fair" in pure capitalism. It is "kill or be killed" business to achieve the most profit and money. There is no "fair" about it. The only time loser businesspeople like her bring up "fair" is when the free market system demands things they are ideologically opposed to---like increased wages to get better employees. For years public employees earned much less salary than their private counterparts, but had a better retirement package. Now that the bill is due for those years of cheap labor greedy business-types want to change the rules to avoid paying the bill.

The market system is "supply and demand". So when the supply of good labor is low then prices go up for good labor and employees.

[cyclezealot]

2. Krugman hit the mark..

He said , when an employer can't find qualified job applicants we need ask ' how much do they pay.'

Fiorina motivations are obvious.. The less everyone else has, then there is more for her.
. Its the likes of these corporate raiders, who have sacked private workers of comparable benefits that pubic workers used to make. Because pubic workers benefits are also being sacked. Its called the race to the bottom.
When the country was prosperous , these wages were possible.
All the while , thanks to the tactics of these raiders, Forbes estimates $21 trillion has been offshored, to keep their loot away from everyone else...

Super Rich Hide $21 Trillion Offshore, Study Says
http://www.forbes.com/sites/frederickallen/2012/07/23/super-rich-hide-21-trillion-offshore-study-says/

[AAO]

24. We could pay of the debt if we conviscate it.

We'd even have enough over to fix a lot of our infrastructure - and lower the SS/Medicare retirement ages to 62. The economy would boom.

[cyclezealot]

42. Not possible.

That 's why they store it in the Cayman Islands , Jersey Isle , and Switzerland.

[DallasNE]

3. No Wonder HP Was In Such Trouble Under Fiorina

She displays confused thinking in her comments here. She attacks unions as evil then complains about police and firefighters being cut. The police union is probably the most powerful public service union out there so does Fiorina not realize that? Her comments seem to show her to be against unions before being for unions but I don't think she understans her own words and that is what has led her to make such confusing statements.

My guess is that Fiorina's pension and benefits from a company that fired her (HP) is more than any public union official can even dream of getting. Way to call her out Rev. Al.

[onehandle]

12. It still is. Republican Meg Whitman is finishing it off and pocketing cash, Bain style. nt

[Mc Mike]

4. Thanks. +1. Essence of teabag repug thought. nt

[eShirl]

5. "The Poor" 's cake is too rich.

* (the non-rich)

[AngryOldDem]

6. Repugnant.

This brings to mind testimony that I heard earlier this year during debates about Indiana's Right to Work law. (It passed, eventually, over much Democratic and labor protest that brought the General Assembly to a standstill for most of the 2011 and part of the 2012 sessions.) One of the hearings had a group of retirees who testified that their company always threatens to cut off their pensions entirely, and their union always has to hire lawyers tp take the company to court to get what these men had paid into for their entire working lives. They have to do this just about every year, and the retirees were afraid that if RTW passed, their union would no longer have the resources to provide legal representation, which would most likely result in the loss of their pensions.

So yeah, Carly...keep spewing that bullshit about how good labor has it.

[aandegoons]

7. But it is fair that CEO's and others are really rich?

Wow the psycho talk from these folks makes 1984 seem tame.

[BumRushDaShow]

8. The majority of public worker yearly pensions equal 2 days of her take-home

of $42,000,000.

Time for her to pay the piper.

[dotymed]

9. With 42 million $$ a lot of tuitions

could be paid. Yep, it's those evil Unions (who allow workers to collectively bargain against greedy corporations) that are responsible for our failing economy.
It has nothing to do with the entitled elites who get $42 million severance packages when they are fired. What Union worker would ever get a multi-million dollar severance package???

"Oh you're fired but here's 42 million to make your unemployment bearable.........

Wake up Americans, we are at the bottom of the pile. Unions can help us to realize a middle class existence (lower middle class usually) but Unions can not get us multi-million dollar "you're getting fired" pay......but they are the best chance for a decent life we average Americans have.

Sick Wealthy Fucks....

[tomp]

10. she forgot to mention....

....that most municipal workers accept a trade off of generally lower salary than market rates IN EXCHANGE for excellent retirement benefits. If Fiorina would like to go back and renegotiate those contracts, well.....

the heartless bitch also knows full well what misery would be inflicted on workers in the absence of unions. the ONLY reason unions even exist is because capitalists would totally fuck us if we didn't unite and fight back.

The fact that we're even having this discussion is evidence that we have not advanced as a society as much as the capitalist media and political rhetoric would have us believe.

[MAD Dave]

11. How far must we fall?

How bad will it have to get before unions re-emerge as an important part of workers rights. I, like many others, believe that the decline in unions is a decline for all workers regardless of union status.

The capitalists WILL screw us all, when they can. It is not IF they will screw us, but WHEN!

[Throckmorton]

34. Ask the Czar of all the Russias

I am sure he has some insight as to how far things can fall.

Unfortunately, he isn't taking phone calls any more.

[HughBeaumont]

13. . . . . and she WONDERS why she lost her senate campaign.

There's a reason Chainsaw Carly's a CNBC favorite.

At HP, she fired workers while trying to secure a seven figure stipend to redecorate her mansionS.

Yeah, but keep telling us WORKERS are the problem with America.

[liberal N proud]

14. Carly Fiorina is among the worst of the worst of America

It is time for pitch forks to be knocking at these peoples doors.

[progressoid]

15. Hey Carly,

[loyalkydem]

16. Give up

your lavish salary and live on food stamps for a week and then get back to me.

[tclambert]

17. Maybe she would feel more generous to those poor working stiffs if she had made $43 million.

She thinks police, firefighters, and teachers should make less? That's her solution to economic unfairness?

Wow.

[n2doc]

18. Stupid 1%er

Tuitions are going up because states have cut their share of funding to public Universities by huge amounts. Also, the easy and cheap access to student loans means people don't think about the cost as much as they should. And because the private universities are generally way oversubscribed, they can raise their tuitions without concern.

[lunatica]

19. Woman snarls and snaps at anyone trying to touch her rightful money

I can see her hunched over a pile of money, whipping her head around in sputum flinging arcs as she snarls with bared teeth while snapping at anything that might get close to her precioussss.

[Ash_F]

23. Wow, that was graphic

You have a way with words.

[lunatica]

26. Thanks!

I love language and the many uses it has.

[closeupready]

27. Agreed. Wow. That really nailed Fiorina's greed, didn't it?

+1.

[Brigid]

49. Now this is a DUzy!

[jerseyjack]

20. I think she ought to be the Repukes choice for senate candidate again.

[valerief]

21. Oh, there's a word I want to call her but I can't.

If only she'd walk down the right dark alley.

[JoePhilly]

25. She also claimed that "out-sourcing" was really "right-sourcing".

[DBoon]

28. In a fair world, Carly would be a Walmart greeter

after her role in destroying one of the greatest US technology companies, she should be unemployable

[Zambero]

29. Let's just continue to de-unionize on a large scale

So that every last worker can be equally poor with no future prospects for themselves or their families. Now THAT's fair (if the current business model for Chinese sweatshop labor is being pursued).

[allan01]

30. re:Fiorina: ‘It is not fair’ that public workers are ‘so rich’

we need another titanic. titanic took out a # of the top rich ppl in the world at the time and also took out more poor than rich. fair . what is fair when it takes 700 walmart floor workers to = the ceos pay? fair ? these a$$hats spent trillions of their own monies to try to defeat a blackman in office and the effort blew up in their face bigtime . these folk also are sitting on 5 trillion dollars and they neeed to be humbled. id love to see Fiorina live off of $850.00 a month after rent and other expenses

[Evasporque]

31. Privatize so CEOs can have even bigger salaries....nt

[1StrongBlackMan]

32. I agree with Florina ...

"It is not fair that public workers are 'so rich' ..."

Time for the private-sector to raise wages and benefits.

[blackspade]

33. Why is this idiot part of the conversation at all?

Carly Fiorina has no credibility at all.

The idea that union workers are too rich is a bald faced lie.
Unions are barely hanging on.
We should be bringing non-union workers UP, not tearing unionized workers down.

[NickB79]

35. Sounds like Ms. Fiorina is promoting class warfare

Why, oh why, Ms. Fiorina, do you hate America?

[marshall]

36. The headline is a weird conflation of the article

It doesn't help the argument.

[yurbud]

37. when was the last time someone retired from Congress to become a UNION president or lobbyist?

[eppur_se_muova]

38. Like Jack the Ripper giving out tips on how to perform surgery ... nt

[Thunderbeast]

39. Fiorina lost BILLIONS in scam at Lucent Technologies

Why the press gives Fiorina the time of day is remarkable! In the late 1990's she was the executive in charge of Lucent Technologies largest division. She conspired with then CEO/Chairman Rich McGinn to pad product sales figures in an effort to wildly inflate results reported to shareholders and the SEC. By creating "phantom" sales of optical networking equipment, Lucent goosed it's share price to over $64 per share. When the facts caught up to her and McGinn, they both left Lucent and the company had to write down over $600 million in fake sales. Wall street "analysts" were also culpable in this massive fraud. This ultimately contributed to the downfall of one of America's great innovation leaders. Bell Labs is now owned by French Alcatel. The adjusted stock price is now around six cents per share. Shareholders, including thousands of employees were wiped out.

Carly escaped any accountability for her the role in the scam. She was rewarded with the CEO position at HP that also ended badly. Fiorina represents the worst of the short-term management philosophy where results for the next quarter are more important than building sustainable business value. That she represents "moderate" Republican values is a statement about the lazy role of business reporters who carry the water for these crooks.

[Julian Englis]

40. Well said but....

That Fiorina was a self-serving and an ineffective corporate executive at the level she practiced is no surprise--if you know the facts. That the press gives her attention is no surprise. She makes herself available and is a talented and motivated liar. The press also makes much of Donald Trump, as he makes himself available.

This to some extent is a failure in how the press identifies people.

If you say you are something more often, the press reports it as the preferred story. The press accepted the label of Mitt Romney as successful business executive, despite the facts. The only reason any of his ethically challenged history at Bain was revealed was that the progressive element in this country kept it in the news. Nor did the press did not label Mitt Romney as "a candidate whose campaign has admitted in order to be elected Romney is willing to change his as quickly as changing images on Etch-A-Sketch," as the Romney campaign inveighed heavily against this truth they themselves admitted. Here, the press does not label Fiorina, as she should be labeled, "failed CEO," as they should. Fiorina instead claims to be the first great female tech CEO, which the facts don't support. Of course, knowing the facts requires some digging.

The converse of this is true, also, to some extent. If your opponents slap a label on you, as the Swift Boaters did for example, the press rarely attacks the underlying defamation as the spectacular first lie.

[KamaAina]

41. I had hoped Carly would zip it after her Senate campaign crashed and burned.

No such luck.

[olddad56]

43. but it is fair that a failure like Carly Fiorina is so rich.

It sure seemed fair where I live when jobs in the public sector went begging for people to fill them and nobody wanted them because they could make more money in the private sector. Once the private sector jobs started drying up, then and only then, did public sector employees have it too good.

[Dont call me Shirley]

44. Carly, waaahhhhh, I'm not rich enough, Fiorina

[wordpix]

45. she's a friend of Mittens & as out of touch as he is

What a dummy - cities and states are going broke due to unions? How about due to property taxes decreasing due to the 2008 mortgage crash, and people having to leave their homes? How about the 2008 stock market crash that went along with it, so people aren't spending money they no longer have, thus, state sales tax decreases. etc., etc.

This woman is a dummy. No wonder she was ousted from HP and for good reason.

[NoGOPZone]

46. Yeah, I bet her Los Altos Hills neighborhood is just overrun with public employees. nt

[ELI BOY 1950]

47. She's a loser...

Drove HP into the ground (merged with Compaq)...was mccains right hand woman ...Loser...and ran against Barbara Boxer and lost....Yet she is always one of the TOP TWENTY Most Influential women...SO SAD

[MichiganVote]

48. Must have been truly heavenly working for this lying sack of shit.

I belong to a union. Neither I or my union are rich. But Carly is. SO maybe she can take her silk shorts and hike em' up and do something positive on earth for a change. Like just plain die.

[Optimus_Prime]

50. Not all unions are alike

It's ironic that Carly Fiorina mentions firefighters and police being "cut", when in reality public safety unions are often the most politically conservative and receive the most friendly carve-outs from municipalities.

Not all unions are alike and oftentimes, it's the public safety unions that are contributing to the financial disorder of local cities, not the teachers' union or the sanitation workers' union.

Hypocrisy at its finest.