Hypocrisy?

Last week as I heard about the government bailout of large companies that pay the executive officers way too much to the detriment of investors, I realized something that I had not thought before. This post is not a political or economic commentary on whether the financial decision of bailouts is a smart one. It is more a condemnation of the way that people look at government assistance depending on the recipient of the assistance.

Many people have strong opinions about whether or not FEMA should provide assistance to those who are victims of natural disasters. I waiver between supporting financial assistance and being against it, depending upon whether I have seen it misused that day. I also have mixed feelings about welfare and the culture that it has created. However, it is often heard from those who have the means that we are just feeding a culture of entitlement and that handouts are bad. I am sure that many of the upper tiered executives at the companies being bailed out have said things like that. Yet, when the company starts to go down because of bad financial decisions (similar to the bad financial decisions made by individuals on welfare) and greed at the highest levels of the corporate ladder, these executives are the first ones begging Congress for a handout, giving the appearance of entitlement mentality. This is quite possibly one of the highest forms of hypocrisy.