Damn Beggars Wasting Money
My charity goes to charity organizations. It doesn’t go to beggars on the street. Reason being is that I don’t trust the people on the street. If I give them a dollar, how do I know they’ll use it for their needs (food, shelter, ect…) and not their wants (alcohol, drugs, etc…). With charity organizations, my money (hopefully) goes to people who will use the money in the most beneficial way.
I bring this up because I came across two distinct examples of beggars wasting money today. The first comes from the auto industry who begged Congress today for some of the bailout money that is being handed out. Apparently, the company CEOs flew to Washington in their corporate jet. According to the Consumerist post, a first-class flight would have cost $800 while the private jet for GM alone costed $20,000. The gaul of these CEOs who have messed up the American auto industry to flaunt their wasteful spending is almost comical.
The other example came from my friend Joseph who pointed me to this article. I had heard that the Triborough Bridge in New York City was being renamed to the RFK Bridge after Robert Kennedy. With New York City asking the federal government for financial aid and the rumors about putting tolls on ALL the bridges to reduce the deficit, I would expect Bloomberg (New York’s mayor) to be pretty tight on what the city is spending money on. Renaming the bridge isn’t a big deal. It’s a name. Apparently, it’s more than a name. It’s a $4M cost to change all the signs. Couldn’t we wait to rename this bridge?
Why can’t we sell the name of the bridge? The Google Triborough Bridge. Sounds good, and profitable, to me.
I like it… “Google Bridge” You’ll make it to the other side 99% of the time. For the other 1% of the time, hey – it’s in beta!
Thanks for alerting the public.
Dear Ely,
I read in the Post today that the signs cost $100,000 to change. But whether it’s $100,000 or $4 million, it’s still too much at this stage of the game.
I’m sure that in 20 years, we’ll rename the Whitestone Bridge the Hillary Clinton bridge, and this will leave us one more bridge (The Throgs Neck) to rename in honor of carpetbaggers who use the junior senator position from NY to advance their national political aspirations.
Please don’t think I’m picking on the Kennedys in particular or the left in general.
The BQE should be renamed the Rudy Guiliani Expressway…as rough and ugly as he was, linking the outer boroughs that was his power base.
Barry, that’s a hoot.
How about the Google Al Gore Rhytm bridge?
g
A follow-up to this post. Citigroup which is in the midst of asking the federal government to bail them out, is slated to pay the New York Mets $ 20 million a year for the next 20 years for the naming rights to the Mets’ new stadium “Citi Field.” Why should my tax dollars go to bailing a company out just so they can keep their Stadium naming rights?
Citigroup still intends to keep the naming rights to the stadium.
FYI CEO’s of major corporations are usualy required to fly on private jets for insurance reasons. it was unfair of the pannel to pounce on that despite how wasteful it may appear to outside viewers.