I was working and listening to the radio and a tormented voice reached my ears. A man spoke who had been through the worst days of his life. He had been put under pressure, harrassed by the media and the public opinion, but it was the strain that all of this put on his family that broke him. Yes ladies and gentlemen, the CEO of the recently privatised energy company Essent was about to give up his fight for the right to earn as much as he could get away with. I turned up the volume, would he really give back a large part of his exorbitant salary because his company was going through a difficult period? Jaap Boersma swallowed the tears from his voice and announced bravely that he would give part of his bonus to charity. Later the newsreader explained that those kind of gifts can be deducted from taxes, so that Mr. Boersma really gave away nothing at all. However neither the media nor the public made a point about this for long, after all, it would have been extremely unnice to bother such a bereft man with the facts. Only cruel and inhuman people like me wondered how someone can be considered an excellent manager, when he doesn’t think twice about robbing his company of a salary it can’t afford, in exchange for management qualities that just put his company through a bad year. If Mr. Boersma gets a bonus in a bad year, what does he get in a good one? The way we treat those managers seems like some social security system for the rich and lucky. Just as we pay poor and unemployed people some money so that they don’t have to beg. In the same way we are paying the rich loads of money, so that they don’t have to face the humiliation of selling one of their three boats.
lyrics
Ze kijken op ons neer
De overheid gaat commercieel, maar zonder risico
De markt, de concurrentie, het is alleen maar show
De service en de kwaliteit zijn onder elke norm
Maar de topbestuurders, die verdienen marktconform
Ze kijken op ons neer, ze kijken op ons neer
Je bent een mens van vlees en bloed
En toch verdien je meer
Dan een ander in z’n leven doet
Ook in een jaar van tegenspoed
Wanneer kijk je op ons neer, wanneer?!
Wanneer kijk je op ons neer, wanneer?!
Als iedereen z’n werk doet en alles accepteert
Als respect normaal is voor een man die niks presteert
Als je je bonus weggeeft, maar wel belastingvrij
Als we allemaal gelijk zijn, maar jij wat meer dan wij
Dan kijk je op ons neer
Kijk je op ons neer
Dan kijk je op ons neer
Op ons neer
En het maakt geen donder uit of je ons waardeert
Je vindt je loon normaal, dus kijk je op ons neer
They are looking down on us (Ze kijken op ons neer)
The government goes commercial but without a risk
The market, the competition, it is just for show
Service and quality are below any norm
But the CEO’s have a salary according to marketstandards
They are looking down on us
They are looking down on us
You are made of flesh and blood and yet you earn more
Than someone else in his whole life
Even when the company loses money
When are you looking down on us?
When?
When everybody does their job and accepts everything
When people respect a guy who accomplishes nothing
When you give away your bonus, but you can deduct this from taxes
When everyone is equal, but you’re a bit more equal than us
Then you are looking down on us
Down on us
And it makes no fucking difference if you appreciate us
You think your wage is normal, so you are looking down on us
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