The target of this truism, which I first encountered in black and white on the pages of Terry Pratchett's Monstrous Regiment, are the bankers and financial workers. Their memory is so poor that they seem to have already forgotten the events of the last six months. I'm being charitable here as I feel it is quite possible that this remarkable level of ignorance is a result of Hanlon's Razor. However, the outright sociopathy evident in comments such as this suggest otherwise:
A clear example of this man's tenuous grip on reality is revealed in the utter stupidity of his subsequent comments comparing city workers' wages to those of Hollywood "stars". Matthew, you may as well point at [insert name of grossly overpaid footballer here] and blame him for the state of the film industry.
Addition:
It is mildly ironic that, after hurriedly drafting this post and putting it on line, it took me two days to notice that I'd written the title as "no has the right to be stupid". Oh dear. I have now added the offending "one". My apologies for my . . . stupidity?
"Regulation is generally bad. You should let the market decide what the people will get paid."Well, Matthew Prest- managing director at Close Brothers investment bank, you are wrong. So wrong that you are either a complete fucking moron or a vicious sociopath with the morals of a . . . well, a managing director at an investment bank.
A clear example of this man's tenuous grip on reality is revealed in the utter stupidity of his subsequent comments comparing city workers' wages to those of Hollywood "stars". Matthew, you may as well point at [insert name of grossly overpaid footballer here] and blame him for the state of the film industry.
Addition:
It is mildly ironic that, after hurriedly drafting this post and putting it on line, it took me two days to notice that I'd written the title as "no has the right to be stupid". Oh dear. I have now added the offending "one". My apologies for my . . . stupidity?
Don't quite understand why the morality of grossly enormous salaries is any different for bankers, footballers and Hollywood stars.
ReplyDeleteOf course bankers *who work for state-owned institutions* shouldn't get superstar money, but I can't see any moral difference between Universal Pictures deciding that someone is worth £15m salary and Bloggs Brothers Broking deciding the same thing...
I think its because Mel Gibson's awful, twatty films lack the sociopathic consequences of BBB's SIVs, subprime mortgages and massive bonuses.
ReplyDeleteOh, but then there's this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Passion_of_the_Christ
I'm fairly sure that the concept of an honest wage is a founding principle of any fair and equal society. Paying bankers millions to effectively fuck society doesn't really fit in with that philosophy.