Friday, October 23, 2009

Sickness

Unemployment is at highs our nation hasn't seen in decades--largely because banks made bad decisions that were motivated by greed and obtaining the largest bonus possible. So what are bankers doing now? Paying themselves huge bonuses. How, do you ask, can they justify paying themselves so handsomely? And less than a year after a close brush with a second Great Depression that was only avoided because taxpayers ponied up the cash to keep these bankers in the black?

“We have to tolerate the inequality as a way to achieve greater prosperity and opportunity for all,” says Brian Griffiths.

I had thought trickle down economics had been discredited by this point. Really, trickle down economics and unfettered capitalism lead ultimately to feudalism--something only the princes and princesses want and the rest of us surely want to avoid. I admit, I'm not sure I like the idea of the government going in and telling people what they can and can't be paid, but I do think the government should do something about this incredibly brazen greed--through taxation. Let them get paid half a million dollars on average for gambling with others' money--and let the US government take, say, 60 or 70% of anything over 100,000. Let some of that largess flow back to the people who are ultimately producing it instead of letting it simply be funneled into the pockets of the people who just think they own it.

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