CEO David Siegel threatens to fire employees if Barack Obama's re-elected - VIDEO
Posted on Wednesday, October 10, 2012 at 10:00 AM
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| David Siegel pictured on his throne |
But this week he's become the public face of the new plutocracy. The plutocracy that are the main backers of the Romney/Ryan campaign, that is.
In a move that seems to have been crafted by Charles Dicken's to cause the maximum outrage Siegel, the founder and CEO of Westgate Resorts, one of the largest developers in the world, sent an apparently threatening email to all eight thousand of his hardworking employees suggesting that they will all be fired if Barack Obama is reelected.
Siegel and his wife Jackie came to prominence this year as the subjects of the documentary film The Queen of Versailles, which followed their quest to build the largest house in America, a 30 bedroom, 90,000 square foot monument to gaudy billionaire excess (including a golden throne for Siegal to sit in).
But their fabulous 1% lifestyle contrasts very sharply with the desperate anxiety they have just created in their own workforce.
Today they have also become the living symbols of the high handed heartlessness of a potential Romney/Ryan administration.
Siegel told Gawker yesterday that he has no retreats about posting the threatening email. Although it did resemble a 2008 chain letter, he said the sentiments it expressed matched his own: 'I did use the letter that had circulated before as a guideline, but I changed it to fit my circumstances. It speaks the truth and it gives employees something to think about when they go to the polls.'
If the big boss doesn't like the results the little people are going to suffer. Pretty nasty stuff.
There was a time when our gilded plutocrats made their threats in code or by implication. Apparently we can dispense with those times. Now we can just adopt the banana republic method where the powers that be can send you a blunt message telling you what will happen if you vote the wrong way.
It's appropriate in many more ways than he intended that the house he built has became known as Versailles. That was Marie Antionette's estate. I'm sure he missed the irony.
Despite himself Siegel has just unwittingly reminded us what this election is all about. He has reminded us exactly the kind of man who stands to benefit most from a Romney Ryan presidency.
72 comments
Frosty38 | Oct 11, 2012, 10:45 AM EDT
I see a large lawsuit in the making. Hop onboard
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CaptainCon | Oct 11, 2012, 09:23 AM EDT
I would suggest an IRS audit on this chap and his hideous wife the day after the inauguration. I'm sure this chap's tax affairs will all be in order down to the last cent.
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shuvonn | Oct 11, 2012, 07:38 AM EDT
I notice that the ones who moan about *Obamacare* have insurance, so I hope it keeps fine for them. However what they do NOT see or refuse to is that people who do not have insurance, avoid having routine tests and when they do get sick, they are likely to be sicker (costing more for treatment)or seeking emergency room care and everyone will have to pay for their higher cost care anyway. What makes that so difficult a concept for many to grasp?? Whereas IF everyone had access to some kind of reasonable cost insurance, paid their fair share while they were healthy, had regular check ups their cost to everyone else would be so much less in the long term, Those of you who are already benefitting from Obamacare such as covering your children up to 26 so they can continue their college education and it costs the parents nothing extra, and the abiltiy to not be excluded by pre-existing conditions are only hypocrites.
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DaddyMac22 | Oct 11, 2012, 05:36 AM EDT
Fascinating\terrifying to read the usual right wing shock jock commenters, gleefully ignoring the disgusting behaviour of one of their brethren and attack the author instead. Take some responsibility. Comment on this disgusting character threatening the livelihood of average working people. Be fair, for once.
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merefalow | Oct 10, 2012, 08:09 PM EDT
this arogant 1% ER MAKES AN EXCELENT CASE FOR INTRODUCING HIM TO THE GUILITINE,LET THEM EAT CAKE,TYPICAL OF THE BREED.
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Searlit | Oct 10, 2012, 07:33 PM EDT
BrianO you will never convince me and I won't you. @Nicomax thanks for the comic relief.
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EphraimKibbey | Oct 10, 2012, 07:24 PM EDT
What about the Michigan Auto Parts manufacturer who did the same thing last week? It seems that one of Romney's DON'T-think tanks has a chain letter going around suggesting that the "JOB CREATORS" threaten their employees this way.
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eiriamach | Oct 10, 2012, 07:08 PM EDT
More whining about taxes from the usual Romneyites gathering here? I just visited Cathy Hayes' article on the taxes Google paid in Ireland. Ms Hayes takes her US corporate tax data from Cato Institute, so I do not expect to read ever again in a posting that ICentral has a "liberal bias"--hogwash! I checked on the data at the end of Hayes' article. I found that as a percentage of GDP, only Iceland among industrialized nations has a LOWER effective corporate tax than the USA has right now. A few million-dollar loopholes here, some billion-dollar depletion allowances there, throw in some multi-million-dollar administrative-expense deductions for jet planes and such, and as BrianO would say, it adds up to real money that US corporations are NOT sending to the US Treasury. US business owners keep more of their profits after taxes than owners in 88 other industrialized countries. But David Siegel wants to keep it all; never mind how much the rest of us pay to support the government that protects his profits as they roll in! And never mind that his workers get less of it in wages for more hours worked than workers in most other industrialized countries. Tax reform--must be top of Obama's 2013 agenda.
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EphraimKibbey | Oct 10, 2012, 07:06 PM EDT
Siegel has been bragging that his business was doing better than ever. It seems that LUXURY resorts are doing just fine as the millionaires and billionaires are unphased by the collapse that they brought down on mainstreet. Siegel did this same stunt in 2004. He claims that Bush won because of the strongarm tactics he used on his employees. There is a law against this kind of intimidation if it occurs in our government agencies so why is it not illegal in the private sector. This soulds like the plot to an old western where the rich guy has the town under his thumb and they bring in Obama to run him out of town. When Obama is re-elected and the Dems take back the house and retain the senate, I think we need a special commission on voter intimidation and disenfranchisement. The one good to come from Siegel's actions is that it underlines the differences between the Plutocrates and the rest of the nation.
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mairint | Oct 10, 2012, 06:44 PM EDT
This HAD to be written by Cahir O'D. He is terrified his beloved Obama will lose the election - and all the favoritism to the happy gay folk. We will see more from the same source as the 'battle' rages on over the next few weeks. Interesting indeed.
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seanomelb | Oct 10, 2012, 05:11 PM EDT
What should we call Siegel a trough feeder or a bottom feeder and his followers below fail to understand the arrogance in his letter and his contempt he has for his employees.
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BobinNC | Oct 10, 2012, 03:28 PM EDT
Did Cahir bother to read the letter to the employees? I think not. What he said was that if Obama gets relected and Siegal's taxes get raised as much as expected under Obama that Siegal would either downsize the number of employees or close the business all together.
Guess what - this is called 'business' - NOT social welfare or hobby. The man started the 'business' to make money and if it becomes unprofitable he closes it. Anyone posting here would do the same thing, once a business can no longer support itself it closes - period. That's the real world, and his reason for sending the employees the letter is so they better understand the impact raising taxes has on business. In this case it has a direct impact on their jobs.
Sorry folks, but this is the real world.
As a footnote I don't understand why so many people are so darn concerned what people do with their own money. Given you're using a computer to read this article and my words this capability came about because of people like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. Do you all begrudge them for getting rich off of their own efforts? If not its likely because its well documented that they held liberal political beliefs and are therefore not evil like those nasty Republicans that think people should be responsible for their own well being.
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CelticQueenUSA | Oct 10, 2012, 03:26 PM EDT
If I worked for this AH I would ask hin to kiss myt Irish ass goodbye!!!! Jerk.
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carlow98 | Oct 10, 2012, 02:47 PM EDT
Many good ideas here on the way taxes and spending helps our economy (Smyrnian,and Brian O). How this man spends his money, Cahir, should be no concern of yours. Unless of course you want someone to step in and start looking at how you spend yours. Too much beer? Tsk, tsk. Seriously, Cahir, do spend a bit of your cash and go take an Economics class.
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