The Spark

the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist

“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx

Poor Rick Wagoner!

Apr 6, 2009

“Poor Rick Wagoner, tossed out on his ear by the Obama administration.”

Or, “Way to go Barack Obama–for tossing GM’s CEO Rick Wagoner out on his ear!”

Wherever you are in the country, you’ve heard a version of this story repeated by the media. But just how hard did Wagoner get tossed?

His executive pension will give him $4,523,400 a year for the next five years–which comes to 22.6 million. Plus another half million or so in “deferred compensation.”

On top of that, he will receive a pension of $68,900 a year for life–small for an executive, but two times as much as a newly retired auto worker will get with Social Security–and many times more than most current retirees.

Not to mention, he got 40.2 million dollars over the past three years. Didn’t he save any of that money?

All those auto workers being tossed out would love to land like that.