Free Speech, Politics

CEO Threatens Employees’ Jobs If Obama Reelected

-Submitted by David Drumm (Nal), Guest Blogger

David Siegel is the founder and CEO of Westgate Resorts, a privately-held national timeshare company and resort developer. Siegel recently sent an e-mail to his 8,000 employees stating that “if any new taxes are levied on me, or my company, as our current President plans, I will have no choice but to reduce the size of this company.” Siegel fails to provide an explanation how an increase in his personal taxes could be offset by firing employees. If firing employees brings in more money for Siegel, then his labor force is padded with the unproductive. Otherwise, Siegel’s actions would appear to be spiteful.

Siegel’s e-mail displays his bitterness at a perceived lack of appreciation and his profound sense of entitlement. The e-mail is full of strawman arguments and devoid of critical thinking.

Siegel writes:

The economy doesn’t currently pose a threat to your job.

The economy, after four years under the Obama administration, is keeping your job safe. Is there a better argument for his employees to reelect Obama?

Siegel complains:

[members of the press] want you to believe that we live in a class system where the rich get richer, the poor get poorer.

Maybe that’s because income inequality is growing, as shown by the chart on the right. The media are simply reporting this fact.

Siegel then goes into a long spiel meant to show how much he’s under-appreciated. We see Spiegel’s bitterness when he writes:

Now, the economy is falling apart and people like me who made all the right decisions and invested in themselves are being forced to bail out all the people who didn’t.

Siegel contradicts himself. At the top of the e-mail, the economy wasn’t a threat and now it’s “falling apart.” Siegel also displays his lazy thinking by simplifying a complex set of circumstances into an easily digestible us-versus-them theme. Many people, through no fault of their own, lost everything because of decisions made by the 1%. Siegel continues:

The people that overspent their paychecks suddenly feel entitled to the same luxuries that I earned and sacrificed 42 years of my life for.

A classic strawman argument. Siegel just makes things up out of whole cloth.

Siegel isn’t much of an economist either:

Business is at the heart of America and always has been. To restart it, you must stimulate business, not kill it. However, the power brokers in Washington believe redistributing wealth is the essential driver of the American economic engine.

No, business is stimulated by demand. As Paul Krugman observes, “Now, however, we’re seeing a much more widespread attack on demand-side economics. More than that, it’s becoming clear that many people don’t so much disagree with the idea that demand matters as find it abhorrent, incomprehensible, or both.”

Siegel adds:

You see, I can no longer support a system that penalizes the productive and gives to the unproductive.

More lazy thinking. Siegel sees an American divided into two disjoint classes, but that’s where his ability to analyze the situation ends. Siegel doesn’t understand, or want to understand, that the bulk of the unproductive are where they are because George W. Bush, and his policies and lax regulatory oversight, caused a worldwide recession. That’s the same George W. Bush that Siegel credits himself with putting into the White House. Is it any wonder that Siegel is not appreciated?

Seigel is advocating giving the disastrous Bush policies another chance, just so he can save a few dollars on his income tax. Greed has no shame.

H/T: Michael LaBossiere, Think Progress, Gawker, The New Republic, Kevin Drum, Think Progress.

88 thoughts on “CEO Threatens Employees’ Jobs If Obama Reelected”

  1. @FairlyBalanced: If Siegel cuts his payroll, it means he is laying people off.

    Precisely. So what I wonder is this: How, precisely, does laying people off make up for his lessened income due to higher taxation? What is the business argument for that?

    The only possible business argument is that he is currently paying employees he does not need. Which makes him either a business idiot, or a liar. His is a business idiot if he is treating employment like a charity and paying people for services that do not contribute to the bottom line. He is also a business idiot if he thinks reducing his income to avoid paying higher taxes is a good move: As long as taxes are less than 100%, every dollar earned translates into money in one’s pocket; and reducing income is always a loss. There is NO level of taxation in the USA on any level of income that makes more gross income decrease net income in actual dollars.

    If in fact he has already minimized his work force, as I suspect, then he is a liar, because he cannot really increase his net profit using significantly fewer people (at least not without substantially increasing his business risks), so he is making an empty threat in order to coerce them.

  2. If Siegel cuts his payroll, it means he is laying people off. The unemployment will be subsidized by the rest of us. Siegel ought to spend his money on sex. His taste in home furnishings is a bit garish. On the other hand, the bride or hooker in the photo looks pretty good to me.

  3. Marsalek,

    How about you do some reading….. The number of recipients has increased only marginally….. The number of welfare recipients receiving money direct from the Fed’s is in proportion to the states cutting the same number…. It’s called voodoo accounting….. I believe it is a set up for the democrats by the Republicans to use as an election tool…. Now that your being a tool…. Maybe you can be useful and spread a truth….. I am not an Obama supporter, so my interest is not myopic….. Is yours?

  4. Anybody who employs 8000 people and can afford to offer $1 million for sex can’t be all bad. Does anyone really think that Siegel cutting the size of his payroll if Obama is re-elected is so much worse than Obama increasing the number or welfare and food stamp recipients before the election?

    1. How would increasing size of welfare and food stamp recipients help him if that is your ponit? It may actually cause some to decide not to vote for him. And BTW I was just removed from food stamp rolls in Pa because I have assets more then $9,000 despite my income well below poverty level. In Pa, prior to the changing of the rules wihtin the last 2 months or so, you could have very high financial assets, not including house and I believe car) and still receive assistance, at least food stamps. As states change their rules the numbers will, and are, going down.
      (Oh also BTW I am one of the 47% who is disabled and paid into the system sufficiently when I was “able” in order to qualify for disability)

  5. Anonomously posted,

    Say it isn’t so.

    Now they are really stealing elections. No more Sct “judgement” needed. Steal the pops from non-contested states to cover the total pop vote side while “arranging” the electoral as money can do. (Said
    to see if you correct any misunderstanding.)

    WTF can we do? Nothing I believe was said. It looks black for America now. Rove started as responsible for direct mail in a state election workiug for H W Bush. He has done well since.

    Maybe the news of the sewing-up of it all by Rove was what took the must out of Obama’s first debate.
    Surely, his campaign knows how Rove et al operate, and what Rove’s ambitions are.

    Steal the election, but don’t leave a Watergate behind.

    Which, BTW, was a setup by Bush Sr. and John Dean with ev. help from the CIA, and the “eastern establishment”.
    According to my understanding of a well-referenced book by Russ Baker on the Bushies.

    John Dean, Nixon’s personal counsel, and Woodward of the Washington Post—-two of the best agents the CIA have ever had domestically. But that’s another story.

  7. AY,

    Nick and everyone else has a perfect right to say whatever they want. That does not obviate the right of anyone else to pick it apart if it is illogical. That is the very essence of debate and/or discussion.

  9. OS,

    You may not agree that nick has the right to his arguments…. But just because one equates the number of words with intelligence is a logical fallacy on your part. Verbage is Verbage….. Garbage is garbage…. Sometimes they are so interrelated you can’t decipher the difference…. But you’re a trained forensic man so you should be able to be objective….. But then again not all are capable…..they then become the strawman….

  10. lottakatz 1, October 20, 2012 at 8:56 pm

    Matt, I thought you were asking how election Judges got their job, I was just saying how it worked in my state. Election Judge is the title of the people that sit behind the tables and take your name, make sure you are on the voting rolls, etc. They in fact “judge” if you meet the qualifications to vote a normal ballot. If your name is not on the rolls or there is an objection of some sort they are then supposed to let you vote (in most instances) a “provisional ballot”. Those are handled differently that a regular ballot. They are volunteers here in MO.

    Your original question though seems to be rhetorical and is about Judge Judges- the black-robed kind. I misunderstood the nature of your question.
    ———————————————————————————————-

    Maybe you should just show your driver’s license if they don’t think you’re telling the truth about your name and address.

  11. http://truth-out.org/news/item/12213-americas-media-just-made-vote-rigging-easier

    The New Threat: Online Vote Rig

    “Today it may be more difficult for a secret media vote-counting consortium to fudge the numbers, should they be tempted.

    Secretaries of State, who oversee elections, are moving toward reporting their votes in real time on public web sites. Unfortunately, these web sites are programmed by private companies. Now, it’s those companies we have to seriously worry about (unless, of course, we actually decide to do something about this situation and restore a public, transparent vote count).

    In 2004, for example, “unadjusted” exit polls showed John Kerry winning the Presidency by what many considered an insurmountable margin, until Ohio’s votes surged for George W. Bush late on election night. The unexpected windfall that handed Bush Ohio’s electoral votes – and therefore the White House – was reported on the web site controlled by the Republican Ohio Secretary of State, Kenneth Blackwell, a fundamentalist Christian, and – yes, it’s true – Honorary Co-Chair of the Committee to Re-elect George W. Bush.

    Blackwell’s web site was programmed by two companies deep under the sheets with the GOP – GovTech and SMARTech – and operations were coordinated behind the scenes by campaign manager, Karl Rove.

    Which brings us back, full circle, to the problem of this new blackout of exit polls.

    “The problem,” writes Jonathan Simon, “is that Karl Rove now has 19 states to mine votes to cover a Romney popular vote loss (undermining and casting suspicion upon his easily arranged Electoral College ‘win’), without the remotest trace of the theft, not even the telltale ‘red shift.’ This was done in 2004 for Bush, and it showed up in the ‘red shift’ in states like Alaska and New York, as millions of votes were shifted in non-competitive states where there was little forensic vigilance. And if it turns out that they need even more votes for Romney, with the public now 100 percent blind to these 19 states, they’ll have them by the millions.”

    The same threat hangs over competitive Senate races across the country, which will determine the balance of Congress, and the courts, for years to come.

    Now more than ever, if we suspect our vote is stolen, we couldn’t prove it if we tried.”

  12. Matt, I thought you were asking how election Judges got their job, I was just saying how it worked in my state. Election Judge is the title of the people that sit behind the tables and take your name, make sure you are on the voting rolls, etc. They in fact “judge” if you meet the qualifications to vote a normal ballot. If your name is not on the rolls or there is an objection of some sort they are then supposed to let you vote (in most instances) a “provisional ballot”. Those are handled differently that a regular ballot. They are volunteers here in MO.

    Your original question though seems to be rhetorical and is about Judge Judges- the black-robed kind. I misunderstood the nature of your question.

  15. Blouise, I would be remiss if I didn’t say that you won the Internets today. Yes, yes you did.

  17. Matt, Election Judges are a voluntary position here in MO., you just volunteer at the Board of Election Commissioners and then do a full day of training and then show up where you are told to, they try to keep you in your precinct. They are the people that sit behind the tables and take your name, make sure you are on the voting rolls, etc. Those positions generally go begging here, and that’s why we see so many folks that look like they are retired doing the job. Most people can’t take a day off work to do the job so retirees have the opportunity to serve in that way.

    They’re appointed in your state?

  19. idealist707 1, October 20, 2012 at 5:57 pm

    “Blouise
    1, October 20, 2012 at 2:43 pm
    Bettykath,

    The last time I served as a Judge I was a registered Republican … this time I’m a Democrat. Phuck ‘em.”
    —————-

    Way to go! Having said and done that, how do you get to be judge? And will they not get wise to you and block you?
    Nice new avatar photo. ;.)
    ———————————-

    Resistance is futile. Or is it? There are some judges who I don’t have any respect for. How do you get to be a judge? You’re either elected or appointed. I don’t have any problem saying I don’t have any respect for MSPB or the Federal Circuit.

  20. David Siegel is the founder and CEO of Westgate Resorts, a privately-held national timeshare company and resort developer.
    —————————————————————–
    Siegel adds:

    You see, I can no longer support a system that penalizes the productive and gives to the unproductive.
    —————————————-

    Since when is staying at a time share or resort productive? That means your primary residence is vacant. How is that productive?

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