The Christmas (Hanukkah) bonuses being given this year on Wall St are totally obscene. Goldman Sachs' employees are getting bonuses averaging over $600,000. with some getting as much as $100 million. It boggles the mind in an era where most of the world's population lives on less than a dollar a day. Yeah, let's talk about the world and not just America in this era of globalization. Most large corporations have their footprints in all the developed and developing countries of the world and derive their profits whether from cheap labor or marketing from all countries of the world so when you consider that the majority of the world's population lives in a slum, the fact that some people are getting millions of dollars just as a Christmas bonus is obscene, nauseating and absurd. It's financial gluttony, greed carried way beyond the pale, a travesty on Christmas and the teachings of Christ, the worship of money for money's sake.
The Wall Street Journal, citing unidentified sources, writes that Goldman Sachs’s chief executive, Lloyd Blankfein, is in line for compensation exceeding $50 million, and analysts told the newspaper that that some other chief executives, such as James Cayne of Bear Stearns and E. Stanley O’Neal of Merrill Lynch, could get $40 million to $50 million, or higher.
While some will be getting bonuses that are completely obscene others will be getting nothing. "In a 2005 survey by Hewitt Associates, 59 percent of companies said they would not award holiday bonuses. But more than three-quarters of firms offer performance-based bonuses that must be reearned each year." But forget about bonuses. 10% of the world's population owns 85% of the world's wealth while the bottom 50% owns less than 1%.
Economists talk about the marginal utility of a dollar. If you give a poor person a dollar it has great marginal utility especially if you're living on a dollar a day, but if you give a rich person another dollar, it won't make much difference to his lifestyle. But what about the marginal utility of another million dollars if you have already given him $39 million? This is what is so sickening, revolting and disgusting about these Christmas bonuses. If this money were given to the poor or distributed in some sensible manner to provide clean drinking water, proper sewage systems, adequate housing, it could go a long way to ameliorate their plight.
What would someone use a $40 million bonus for? You have to assume these guys weren't poor to begin with. They already had everything money could buy. So are they now going to build a 70,000 square foot house instead of a 10,000 square foot one? Are they going to buy a fleet of corporate jets instead of owning just one? There's a limit to how much a person can consume even if they do nothing but spend money. How many houses and cars does one person need? Or we might ask the question: after a certain limit is it unhealthy to acquire and spend more wealth? I think the answer is yes. I don't think wealthy people are happy unless they are frugal because they spend money in ways that are not conducive to their health. They overeat since they can eat anything they want whenever they want, and the consequences of this alone are high blood pressure, diabetes and all the debilitating lifestyle diseases such as heart disease and cancer. Wealth becomes a burder after a certain point rather than a liberator.
People can actually live very well on wealth which is orders of magnitude less than that represented by these obscene Christmas bonuses. I live in a 700 square foot apartment. It's not 7000 feet (a McMansion) or 70,000 square feet (a real mansion), but it is located in one of the best spots in the whole world right next to one of the world's best parks. The only difference between my lifestyle and a wealthy person's lifestyle is I can't accumulate a lot of crap. Most rich people accumulate crap which either they don't use or is unhealthy or is a burden. They have to worry about keeping track of all their crap. They have to worry about losing all their crap. Thoreau said, "Live simply." Jesus said to the wealthy man, "Give what you have to the poor, and come and follow me." He also said "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven." Of course, organized Christianity, which has become a big business in itself, conveniently forgets or twists Christ's message. That's one reason I and Bertrand Russell are not Christians.
I hope these wealthy people with their Christmas bonuses aren't Christians since Christ was totally against capital accumulation. He talked about the "birds of the field" who neither reap nor sow nor "store things up in barns where moth and dust can corrupt" and yet their Heavenly Father provides for them. "Seek ye first the Kingdom of Heaven and all these things will be added to you." I take this to mean that you shouldn't live your life acquiring material things and lusting after money and gorging yourself, but on some different principal, and your material needs will be satisfied to a reasonable degree. Having too much is nauseating, an emetic. A $40 million Christmas bonus makes me want to throw up! What a twisted sense of values these people must have!
In a nation where millions will remain hungry - I mean, “food insecure” - this Christmas, CEO compensation of this level is obscene.
In a country where hundreds-of-thousands have lost jobs, benefits, homes, careers - I mean, “been downsized” - as a consequence of greedy mergers and outsourcing, bonuses like this are a travesty.
In an America where the disparity between average workers’ salaries and the incomes of “top executives” has become mind-boggling, these figures are simply criminal.
I’ve always known that I was destined in my career to rise no higher than middle management, and that the ambitious individuals who head corporations would, quite naturally, be rewarded more handsomely than myself. But this is something else. This is something beyond the pale.
America has become a feudal society, a culture of viceroys and vassals. Information like that contained in this report will only fuel a righteous anger among those spending this Holiday season without insurance, without pensions, holding down two jobs merely to make ends meet. Many of us are already willing to join Patrick with torches and pitchforks at the ready.
— Posted by Bob Portune
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