Bankers are going to have bumper bonuses this Christmas

[devonwoody]

Do you think I am a banker or something?

Also waiting for the wife to be picked up from hospital having kemo treatment.

 

[Dibs-h]

Waiting for some glue to dry. :mrgreen:

How about you?

Thought so! :lol:

Just busy pricing up some new rads as some of ours are a bit on the small side. Missed out on some cheap ones from screwfix purely out of laziness. :roll:

DIbs

 

[Anonymous]

I believe in the trickle down theory it has to work, and i also believe hard work pays in the long term, we have a free education system upto the age of 18, then in higher education you need believe in yourself and make that investment by taking the student loans etc. The bone idle in this country expect everything for nothing!!

I am not a capitalist, even i was i wouldn't be a very good one as i am skint, i own a small business that employs 2, I have cashflow problems like everyone else and the banks don't want to know. But i have some great understanding suppliers/landlords etc and will in the long term i will make it work somehow.

As for bankers/traders bonus's, its their job its what they do. Its excessive what they get rewarded for their hard work, but thats the nature of their business. I know a few people who have tried and failed to become an investment banker, but i also know a couple who have succeeded, those who have succeeded spend money like its going out of fashion that to me is a very good thing. Those who have failed keep trying.

 

[Jason Pettitt]

Does it bother you that folk are being rewarded for their work? Why shouldn't they be rewarded?

Oh come on, It's not like you guys are volunteers.

in 2008, the year of the financial meltdown, Goldman Sachs received a $6 billion US government bailout (ie public money that should have been spent improving schools, public infrastructure, health projects, programmes to improve social inclusion etc etc). Sachs spent a little under of half of that $6 billion paying each other end of year staff bonuses.

Yeah, I've got a problem with that.

And it's not even as though money acts as an incentive for anything other than manual tasks.

 

[Jacob]

I believe in the trickle down theory it has to work, ......

But it doesn't. You only have to look at the richest country in the world which has a (fairly) free market i.e. USA. Per capita income is enormous yet 15.1% of the pop, approximately 43.6 million, live in poverty, with all the associated problems plus inadequate health care.
Then look at Mexico next door which is more or less a USA dependant state. A much freer market with less regulation and intervention - another 49million people live in much worse poverty and violence and crime is rife.
So in the richest part of the world 90 million people live in poverty, and wealth most certainly does not trickle down.
It never has in the past, it doesn't now and it never will. It's glaringly obvious.
It trickles up. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer, unless there is some countervailing force, ideally democratic redistribution by taxation. If not it gets redistributed by crime, revolution or other systemic collapse.

 

[Dibs-h]

Does it bother you that folk are being rewarded for their work? Why shouldn't they be rewarded?

Oh come on, It's not like you guys are volunteers.

in 2008, the year of the financial meltdown, Goldman Sachs received a $6 billion US government bailout (ie public money that should have been spent improving schools, public infrastructure, health projects, programmes to improve social inclusion etc etc). Sachs spent a little under of half of that $6 billion paying each other end of year staff bonuses.

Yeah, I've got a problem with that.

And it's not even as though money acts as an incentive for anything other than manual tasks.

It seems you missed out the other bit - in bold below

Does it bother you that folk are being rewarded for their work? Why shouldn't they be rewarded?

We're not having a conversation on bonuses being paid to folk working at firms bailed out by the Gov't.

If you are going to quote - don't be selective.

Dibs

 

[LuptonM]

Their bonuses are often based on performance. IB jobs are filled by graduates ifrom top universities, so its only fair that such people who have worked so hard to get there should have the opportunity to earn some fairly decent money despite the hours being terrible.

If you want to complain about other peoples wages complain about actors and footballers (well the famous ones- I'd bet it doesn't pay in the lower ranks). Dentists are pretty bad as well. £30 for a 5min check up

 

[Dibs-h]

Dentists are pretty bad as well. £30 for a 5min check up

So who pays for the receptionist that you called to arrange the appointment? The dental nurse, rent, rates, sterilisation equipment, professional indemnity, bloody expensive equipment?

Not so reasonable when you factor in all the costs that you don't see.

In the case of bankers, footballers, and loads more - if a group of individuals are making such large sums of money for their employer, it's human nature to demand a cut. As for footballers - if folk stopped following the games at the stadium or via TV - things would soon be driven home. But fat chance of that.

Dibs

 

[Jacob]

I believe in the trickle down theory it has to work, ......

But it doesn't. You only have to look at the richest country in the world which has a (fairly) free market i.e. USA. Per capita income is enormous yet 15.1% of the pop, approximately 43.6 million, live in poverty, with all the associated problems plus inadequate health care.
Then look at Mexico next door which is more or less a USA dependant state. A much freer market with less regulation and intervention - another 49million people live in much worse poverty and violence and crime is rife.
So in the richest part of the world 90 million people live in poverty, and wealth most certainly does not trickle down.
It never has in the past, it doesn't now and it never will. It's glaringly obvious.
It trickles up. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer, unless there is some countervailing force, ideally democratic redistribution by taxation. If not it gets redistributed by crime, revolution or other systemic collapse.

If you want to see trickle down theory not working on a daily basis look at India. Massive progress in industrialisation and jobs for the middle classes but the poor are getting even poorer as prices rise. But it's a democracy, and the fight for taxation, minimum wages, welfare of various sorts, is on. It's scaring the middle classes as the tax bill is likely to be huge, if this is to become a peaceful and civilised country.

 

[Dibs-h]

If you want to see trickle down theory not working on a daily basis look at India. Massive progress in industrialisation and jobs for the middle classes but the poor are getting even poorer as prices rise. But it's a democracy, and the fight for taxation, minimum wages, welfare of various sorts, is on. It's scaring the middle classes as the tax bill is likely to be huge, if this is to become a peaceful and civilised country.

And the Caste system isn't helping social mobility - the poor are likely to be the lower castes.

 

[RogerS]

...... Its excessive what they get rewarded for their hard work, but thats the nature of their business......

Apart from the level of bonus being obscene, these fat bast*ard bankers get paid bonuses regardless of what they do. The bank can go to the wall but they'll still keep their noses in the trough and hoover up their fat cheque.

 

[RogerS]

.....The rich get richer and the poor get poorer ......

Just like in the old Soviet Union, then, Jacob.

 

[Jacob]

.....The rich get richer and the poor get poorer ......

Just like in the old Soviet Union, then, Jacob.

More like the new Soviet Union.
A good example in fact. Wealth generation going on apace but not well controlled hence a generation of new Russian mega millionaires and a vast population not getting much benefit.
Good point Roger!

They buy yachts in Monaco, houses in London Paris etc, big foreign cars, race horses, football teams - so it doesn't take long for the money to trickle down to the peasants out on the steppes. :lol: :lol:

 

[RogerS]

Sorry Jacob but the difference between the richest and poorest in the old Soviet Union dwarves that in todays Russia.

 

[Jacob]

Sorry Jacob but the difference between the richest and poorest in the old Soviet Union dwarves that in todays Russia.

Well I dunno I don't have any figures but I'd guess that wealth distribution is reverting to pre-revolutionary conditions. Russia was very poor as it recovered from the revolution and from WW2 and there wouldn't have been much wealth to trickle up. Wealthy Russian weren't conspicuous under Stalin or Kruschev but they are all over the place now.

 

[RogerS]

.....Wealthy Russian weren't conspicuous under Stalin or Kruschev but they are all over the place now.

No, they kept it very quiet. And if you also factor in privileges that the commissars and above had then the contrast is even more marked.

 

[MIGNAL]

I doubt that there is much difference!

Taken from Wiki:
Abramovich is currently the ninth richest person in Russia and the 53rd richest person in the world, according to the 2011 Forbes list, with an estimated fortune of $13.4 billion.

 

[Jacob]

.....Wealthy Russian weren't conspicuous under Stalin or Kruschev but they are all over the place now.

No, they kept it very quiet. And if you also factor in privileges that the commissars and above had then the contrast is even more marked.

What did they do with it then? Buy new Ladas and Trabants?

 

[RogerS]

No, they kept it very quiet. And if you also factor in privileges that the commissars and above had then the contrast is even more marked.

What did they do with it then? Buy new Ladas and Trabants?

Gold

 

[devonwoody]

Abramovich, perhaps he is rich because he has worked so hard like those bankers mentioned earlier and we should not be envious. :mrgreen:

He seems a sensible man, after all he hasnt purchased Rooney.