Bankers, let Facebook tell you what to do with your bonuses!
Ooo, looky - another stupid fucking Facebook group. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Bankers Bonuses to Haiti. Here's their stated aim:
We believe that the undeserving bankers who are being or have been awarded obscene bonuses a mere18 months after precipitating the worst financial crisis for decades, resulting in countless people losing their jobs and homes (not the bankers though!), should pay all or a percentage of their ill gotten gains to the Haiti Earthquake Relief effort.
Let's break that angry, crass blurb down a bit. First of all, "undeserving bankers"? Who says they are undeserving? The people who pay the bonuses certainly don't think they are undeserving. Otherwise they wouldn't get the bonuses. Because, err, that's how bonuses work. And did every banker precipitate the financial crisis? Or just some of them? And here's a crazy idea - perhaps other people have some sort of complicity in the crisis. Like politicians, and those morons who took out 125% mortgages on their home. And obscene - what, pray, constitutes an obscene bonus? 1%? 10% 100% 200%? And is it obscene even if the company who employs the banker believes that person is worth that money?
Moving on - do we really believe that no banker has lost their job and/or their house because of the financial crisis? Because a lot of people working for Lehman Brothers did lose their jobs. And, for all we know, their homes. And "ill-gotten gains"? Again, you need to understand that companies don't pay bonuses if they don't believe the person is worth it. Hell, sometimes they don't pay bonuses even if they do think the person is worth it. There is nothing "ill-gotten" about someone accepting a bonus offered to them by their employers.
Don't get me wrong, I think that people should give money to Haiti. If they want to. Which is the point of charity. Bankers should give their bonuses, or part of their bonuses, to charity, if they want to. However, if they don't, then they should keep their money and spend it on whatever they want. Even if it is coke and cheap hookers.
Because, again, that is the point of charity. It is voluntary. Charity is not enforced by yet another tedious fucking Facebook group. So, bankers, do whatever you want with your bonuses. They're for you, after all.
posted by The Nameless Libertarian @ 8:17 am
7 Comments
7 Comments:
Well said. I'd also chuck 'incompetent regulators' into the list of those more responsible than bankers for the crisis.
Yes, but we have no idea whether they're being paid the market rate because the state owns so much of the financial sector in various ways, & has bailed it out. So there's no actual way of knowing whether any given City boy has done anything worthwhile, given that government policy has aimed squarely at restoring the status quo.
I'm one of the people that pays them. I would have told RBS to fuck off. I don't even get involved with any of that, I'm with the Co-Op.
Whether these people "deserve" their bonuses or not is irrelevant in this situation. It's just another group of jealous people who think just because they don't have that amount of money at their disposal then no one else should. Charity - no matter how honourable - should NEVER be forced on anyone. It is the individual's choice what they give their money to and how much.
Asquith,
I know what you're saying, and it is a bit of a mystery to me that the government complains about bonuses and does nothing to stop them being paid, despite having a controlling share in a lot of them.
I'd also have told RBS to fuck off - the nationalisation of the banks has been a disaster.
But I'd agree with Complexmessiah - charity should never be forced on anyone. Even those, like the bankers, who are the current whipping boys of society.
TNL
Yes, it's obviously a daft idea- hope I didn't give you to think otherwise. But I am just saying that all is not well in the world o' bonuses.
Personally I donated to Doctors Without Borders as I decided, on balance, that they are most likely to make good use of it.
Still, the highest compensated, with bonuses being a key component of the package, are just too highly compensated. I don't buy the "they will leave, we need to keep the best" argument. They pay themselves this because they can and their board of directors are in on the deal.
How come my doctor is paid thousand of times less? Is his contribution to society less? The pilot flying the plane I'm on? The mechanic that repairs my car? The teacher of my children?
They can pay themselves that because they have the profits to do so, most years. And yes, if you want to keep the best bankers, then you need to pay them bonuses. Often the base salaries are not huge in banking (and not that small either) and the bonus is a big part of the compensation package. Of course, shit bankers shouldn't be paid bonuses, and hopefully they will fuck off and leave.
If you want your doctor to be paid more, lobby the government to pay doctors more. And if you want your pilot or mechanic to be paid more, offer to pay more when you use their services. There is very little to stop you from doing that.
Unless, of course, you want to reduce everyone's salaries to a roughly equal level. But that's just crass socialism, so I'm assuming you're not talking about doing that.
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