Re the anger at greedy corporate execs--it won't do much good.

I liked this column by Maureen Dowd that appears in today's NEW YORK TIMES: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/01/opinion/01dowd.html?_r=2

And it is rather pitiful that the corporate/Wall Street CEOs/majordomos are hunkering down, determined to hang on to what they feel are hard-won perks (lavish expense accounts, fit-for-a-monarch living and working quarters, superplush personal jets--not to forget multimegamillions of parting gifts in cash/stock options) while the public gets poor products, abysmal customer service and, in certain cases, going-out-of-business sales to digest.

[UPDATE 2/3/09: Wells Fargo, after taking over Wachovia and receiving bailout money, plans a lavish employee party in Las Vegas: http://money.aol.com/news/articles/_a/bbdp/wells-fargo-another-bailed-out-firm/327746]

[UPDATE 2/4/09: Wells Fargo, after an outcry of protest, canceled the party: http://money.aol.com/news/articles/_a/bbdp/wells-fargo-another-bailed-out-firm/327746?icid=200100397x1218250358x1201186513]

Recently, I read a laudatory profile of Barney Frank in THE NEW YORKER. Frank optimistically predicted an economic recovery by 2010 (presumably before the midterm elections).

If such a recovery takes place on Frank's schedule, I'm assuming that America will return to doing business in the same old ways it did prior to the Wall Street meltdown of this past September.

And, once again, cretins like Jack "GE" Welch will feel comfortable enough to spout tough-guy downsizing palaver in books and over the airwaves.

The new battle cry of the impatient young: "He/she's like.....90 years old."

I heard the above phrase yesterday from a young woman working at a corporate bookstore in the San Fernando Valley. She was using it as a part of a conversation with a male colleague.

Heaven forbid if you're a senior citizen and slow to give information to someone much younger working in a service position.

And my wife overheard someone using the exact same phrase recently.

Heartlessness is something corporate America thrives on in its search for megaprofits for just a few at the top (CEOs, large shareholders). And perhaps those citizens who think people like General Electric's Jack Welch are ubernifty--plus those who joyfully mocked John McCain (who spent the last few months self-destructing his "maverick" myth) for being "old" can take responsibility for the behavior of the young men and women who have made "he/she's like.....90 years old" a synonym for "I don't want to take any more time with you than I have to because I'm not working here forever."

Let's all prepare for the young to keep singing "We are the champions/No time for losers." And pray we have good health and enough of a nestegg to avoid going to nursing homes where impatience (sometimes physical as well as verbal) and the ever-popular rite of orderlies/nurses stealing patients' belongings are rampant realities.