Wall Street Compensation Cut In Half...You Should Care?
Wall Street execs will only get half of what they got last year. Yes, I realize that most of us would happily take the half if offered. But here's something that just dawned on me.
The comp most, if not all, of these folks received since the 2008 bailouts was made possible by taxpayer money used to bail out their firms. Okay, so most of us realize this. But does it strike you, as it now strikes me, that these folks "got away" with something? How come We the Taxpayers put up with this? Shouldn't we have been infuriated that our government not only bailed out these firms, but that the firms continued to pay handsome bonuses in spite of being bailed out by taxpayer money?
(Remember: the government has no money of its own. It's source of revenue is taxes or borrowing. Taxes come from taxpayers - individuals and corporations, in other words us. And when the government borrows, they have to pay the interest, and at some point the principal, with - you guessed it: taxes they collect from us.)
But that's not what just dawned on me. What struck me in the gut just now was this.
When they paid those first bonuses after the 2008 bailouts, they were criticized to some degree. (At least some of us weren't asleep or apathetic.) They made the claim that it was necessary for them to pay bonuses to keep the "talent" they needed to run the firms. Two things about that claim:
First, if they couldn't pay their "talent," then we assume those "talented" people would leave and find a job with a firm that could pay them, right?
Second, if their "talent" left (assuming there were other firms willing to pay them a huge bonus) what would happen? Would the firms collapse? Should you and I care? What does an investment bank actually do that's so important to the production of real wealth - goods and services that make our lives better? If the answer is - as I would assert - nothing, then why should any of this be the concern of the taxpayer? Why are we subsidizing gigantic bonuses paid to people who don't contribute anything of any real worth to the common good of our society?
Isn't it time we stopped being bamboozled by this sort of propaganda that in the end benefits a few privileged members of our society - indeed people who benefit from the taxes paid by the rest of us.
Isn't it time for the rest of us to wake up to what these sorts of schemes?
The comp most, if not all, of these folks received since the 2008 bailouts was made possible by taxpayer money used to bail out their firms. Okay, so most of us realize this. But does it strike you, as it now strikes me, that these folks "got away" with something? How come We the Taxpayers put up with this? Shouldn't we have been infuriated that our government not only bailed out these firms, but that the firms continued to pay handsome bonuses in spite of being bailed out by taxpayer money?
(Remember: the government has no money of its own. It's source of revenue is taxes or borrowing. Taxes come from taxpayers - individuals and corporations, in other words us. And when the government borrows, they have to pay the interest, and at some point the principal, with - you guessed it: taxes they collect from us.)
But that's not what just dawned on me. What struck me in the gut just now was this.
When they paid those first bonuses after the 2008 bailouts, they were criticized to some degree. (At least some of us weren't asleep or apathetic.) They made the claim that it was necessary for them to pay bonuses to keep the "talent" they needed to run the firms. Two things about that claim:
First, if they couldn't pay their "talent," then we assume those "talented" people would leave and find a job with a firm that could pay them, right?
Second, if their "talent" left (assuming there were other firms willing to pay them a huge bonus) what would happen? Would the firms collapse? Should you and I care? What does an investment bank actually do that's so important to the production of real wealth - goods and services that make our lives better? If the answer is - as I would assert - nothing, then why should any of this be the concern of the taxpayer? Why are we subsidizing gigantic bonuses paid to people who don't contribute anything of any real worth to the common good of our society?
Isn't it time we stopped being bamboozled by this sort of propaganda that in the end benefits a few privileged members of our society - indeed people who benefit from the taxes paid by the rest of us.
Isn't it time for the rest of us to wake up to what these sorts of schemes?
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