They Are Laughing At Us

A couple of days ago I tried to estimate what Goldmann Sachs would pay its staff this year after hearing the announcement of just how much they intended to pay out for the last three months alone. Now more than one city analyst is suggesting that the investment bank will actual manage to pay each and every one of its staff an average of $1 million for the complete year. I have already said that the money is obscene and I cannot think of any words strong enough to express my disgust. There is a lot of nonsense being written and said about paying for success etc. but it is well ..... to put it bluntly - just bollocks. There are lots of people who work hard for their livings, are good at their jobs and are a vital part of our lives but remuneration at the level of Goldmann Sachs will, for them [as well as the rest of us] remain nothing more than a complete fantasy. No doubt these financial whizz-kids will tell us - as they stuff all the cash in their collective pockets - just how important it is that wage rates be kept low among the plebs and labouring classes to ensure a competitive economy. Similar things would have been said during the early days of laissez faire capitalism as rich merchants luxuriated in their rural mansions and the labouring classes worked 14 hour days to scratch enough reward to just feed themselves and their families - if they were lucky.

We have a rapidly rising unemployment rate, an economy flat on its back, huge government debts, people losing their houses, many enjoying negative equity and things still getting worse. All caused by Goldmann Sachs and their like - banks that had to be bailed out by taxpayers. Yet they now intend to pay themselves even more money than they have ever did before. They are laughing at us, the poor mugs who have bailed them out. And what are our governments doing? Nothing is the answer. What can I say? Our governments are useless. The only thing they understand is rioting in the streets. And these payments justify rioting in the streets. The rich who have always ruled this country fear that.

If we could take the money being paid to the Goldmann Sachs workers for their efforts in the last three months and give it to the 281,000 extra people who have been made unemployed in the last three months, we could give them nearly £15,000 each - which would tide them over for a while. The Goldmann Sachs staff could possibly just get by on the remaining $750,000 each for the rest of this year.

There are many things rotten in Western Capitalism.

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