Worldwide, the bankers have created a financial crisis which affects all of us and still the richest bankers have walked away with bonuses measured in millions (whatever your currency might be).
Who pays?
We do. You and I, the ordinary but brilliant, intelligent, hard-working people of the worlds democracies contribute the profits of the banks and subsidise the losses of the banks. Our governments have spent hundreds of billions rescuing failed banks - and we still pay the bastards who made the banks fail!
Whether the banks made profits or losses, the bankers still received contractual bonuses. Would you get a bonus if the company you work for performed badly? No. But you (I speculate) are not a director.
I've been aware of the Wall Street riots for a few weeks and I have been wondering why they have not been reported by the media. I think the answer is that the media are being advised by governments that they should keep it quiet. Civil unrest is very unsettling to fragile, barely elected, democratic governments. Certainly the BBC has not made a point of publicising the protest.
Here is your chance to make your views heard worldwide via internationally famous campaigning site Avaaz. They say:
Thousands of Americans have non-violently occupied Wall St -- an epicentre of global financial power and corruption. They are the latest ray of light in a new movement for social justice that is spreading like wildfire from Madrid to Jerusalem to 146 other cities and counting, but they need our help to succeed.
As working families pay the bill for a financial crisis caused by corrupt elites, the protesters are calling for real democracy, social justice and anti-corruption. But they are under severe pressure from authorities, and some media are dismissing them as fringe groups. If millions of us from across the world stand with them, we'll boost their resolve and show the media and leaders that the protests are part of a massive mainstream movement for change.
Read on at this site, and make your vote - ACT NOW!
Small note: I have been registered with Avaaz for a few months. Their campaigning e-mails are not intrusive. I trust them and recommend that you do too.
Smaller note: I can hardly believe I said "the parasites who work in Wall St". 'Work' is not the right word. Should it be 'gamble'?
Smaller smaller note. I cannot believe the author said "bastards". I on the other hand would have not been as so succinct. I have a whole bunch of adjectives to describe the banks and their spineless parasitic organisations, conveniently situated in "tax haven" countries where the profits of embezlement buy weapons for terrorists.
ReplyDeleteJesus had the right idea! Matthew 21:12 (and in the gospel of Mark). He drove the Money Changers out of the temple. However, unfortunately this act seems to have only resulted in the "Bastards" opening their own "dens of thieves" and charged everyone for the overhead of doing it. Perhaps Jesus should have been smarter and taken a cut of the profits and become the first Banking Regulatory Authority.
Moving on from that…… who else thinks that Mervyn King is a complete butt hole? The bloke only has to open his fat, overpaid cakehole and the pound slips further down the pan. I could do that job!!!
I fully agree that the system of remuneration in banking is totally wrong.
ReplyDeleteThe basic salaries are far too high, totally out of proportion to those of many people who do far more worthy work, think surgeons, doctors and nurses as a good example.
What is perhaps more galling is the way the bonuses are seen as a right. In my last employ if the company made losses, not only were there no bonuses but there were also no pay rises. This was applied equally to everyone from the Managing Director down to the lowest paid employee.
I work for myself now, but the same philosophy applies - work hard, achieve success and profit and reap the rewards. If things don't go well - take the hit.