In light of that discussion, through which I personally at least gained some considerable insights, touching upon as it did issues of Ownership, Equality, Exploitation and Greed, I thought I would share with you a short extract from one of the stock market trading reports that are issued each and every day, in support of traders trying to make some...profit that is:
"So whilst the focus is on growth in Davos this year, there is also the touchy subject of executive pay. This of course is being hotly debated here in the UK as the head of RBS takes another million as a bonus. How can he, it’s a disgrace, where’s his moral compass, many people are crying out.
Unfortunately, the hard cold fact is that that’s what bankers are paid and he’s only taken two thirds of what he legally and contractually could have been awarded. In effect Mr Hester is a civil servant and you can rest assured that banking crisis or no banking crisis, even if the bank was fully owned by the state, he would still be paid what he is today as a minimum. Senior civil servants are paid large sums of money in order to keep them in the civil service because the state knows that most could go to the private sector and probably be paid more. In the end if Mr Hester does his job properly then the two million a year we pay him will look very good value if he repairs the bank and we sell our stake for a profit. So he might be a multi-millionaire, but the pressure is on him to turn the taxpayer’s investment into a profit."
(Taken from: Capital Spreads-Morning Commentary: Fri 27 Jan 2012)
All comments gladly recieved...
Bye for now
5 comments:
...So "the pressure is on him", is it indeed? I wonder, I really do wonder... If he should fail... Will he, like occasionally we see coming out of Japan, fall upon his sword? Will he go on public television and weep in the knowledge of his own inadequacy to the task? Will he beg the forgiveness of the employees who have or may or will lose their livelihoods due to his, and soley his inabilities? Will he perhaps resign and give the money back, the bonuses that are wholly conditional upon that success? ... I wonder, I really do wonder.
I'm sorry for being so cynical but if you look at the evidence over the past few years... Well, I'll leave it to your own judgement...
I don't know what the problem is. I rather like that large sums of money are paid to bankers, or else, why would you want to work in the field of making money by selling money to others? Incentives are important. It's the beauty of capitalism. Or else we would all work from the goodness of our hearts. Yeah right.
Besides, the alternative is that we have some 'body', probably the government, regulate what people can get paid. Or perhaps they would just go and take people's money away because of the knee-jerk political reaction of a lot of people. Which would mean giving the government the power to perform such a task. Which means a bigger government with more powers. Which means more taxes. Etc.
Eh. Some years ago we handed control to corporations and free markets, and all of us allowed the government to hand off more and more to private interests. Our democracy is now the 'power of the wallet' which is no power at all really, just the worst dreams of democracy realized. We have little political power and we sort of deserve the mess that we're in.
Hooray for generalizations and sweeping opinions!
um... just give me a little while to chew that over ... I will respond, honestly I will...
You need to change the font on the excerpt. The gray is difficult to see against the black.
What? This is a worthwhile contribution. Does this earn me the title of "Dog Walker"?
Worthwhile indeed... anything that blocks the messages going out is to be seen as undesirable... mmmmm "dog walker"... well, I don't really know about that (frowns)
Post a Comment