Extremes

Recently I read of two severance packages given to a CEO and his co-president that just boggled my mind.

The CEO was a Mr. Purcell who worked for nearly 20 years as chief executive of Dean Witter and then Morgan Stanley when it combined with Dean Witter. He was given a package worth $113 million while Mr. Crawford his co-president of only 3 months was rewarded with $32 million after leaving the firm amid a power struggle.

This seems to be a trend that started a few years ago - reward the man at the top for screwing the men and women on the bottom. A person sweats and toils for 20 to 30 yrs. then has the rug pulled out from under him leaving him without health benefits and in cases like Polaroid no retirement benefits.

Locally we have Mr. Kilts who will be remembered as the chief executive who sold a century-old icon (Gillette) and is due to receive compensation valued at $165 million. At Gillette and Nabisco, Kilts oversaw the elimination of 13,200 jobs.

In the same paper I read of a Shawnette Treat, 37, who was diagnosed with lung cancer last year and told that she has less than 2 yrs. to live. She lives with her husband and two children in Melbourne, Arkansas. She had to stop working in March to undergo a double mastectomy when the cancer spread. Because of the corporate greed that persists in this country, she finds herself in a position in not being able to afford Tarceva, a cancer drug which costs almost $90 a day, or $31,000 a year. The family has private insurance which covers 80% of Tarceva's cost, but she can't afford to pay her insurer's $500 monthly co-payment.

"My husband's the only one working, and we have bills and stuff that we have to pay, and it takes all he makes for us to make it," Ms. Treat said. "Five hundred dollars is a lot to us a month."

How can we have such extremes? A woman trying to extend her life by a few more months has to scrape to come up with $500, while CEOs are lavished with millions.

Scripture tells us, "...it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kngdom of God."