From NY Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/26/business/26pay.html?ref=todayspaper "Of the large banks receiving federal help, Goldman Sachs stands out for setting aside the most per person for compensation. The bank, which nearly halved its compensation last year, set aside $4.7 billion for worker pay in the quarter. If that level continues all year, it would add up to average pay of $569,220 per worker — almost as much as the pay in 2007, a record year. “We need to be able to pay our people,” said Lucas van Praag, a spokesman for Goldman, adding that the rest of the year might not prove as profitable, and so the first-quarter reserves might simply be “sensible husbandry.”
Sensible husbandry? We are the sheep getting screwed by this. It is hard to imagine a more arrogant statement.
Story continues... "At other banks, pay scales tilt in favor of particular units. JPMorgan Chase, for example, is setting aside what would total $138,234 on average for workers. But in the bank’s trading and investment banking unit, if revenue stays at first-quarter levels, workers are on track to earn an average of $509,524 over the year. That figure was $345,147 in 2006."
So, while Wall Street is demanding and encouraging companies to outsource to China and India because labor is cheap, they themselves believe that high pay is necessary to retain the best people. This bullshit has got to stop. I'd jump on a plane tomorrow to attend a mass protest in NYC. Bring it on - where are the leaders who can organize? This is not the stuff of whacked out conspiracy theorists, it really and truly is the new era of American fascism. And we let it happen because we just don't give a damn about ourselves, our children or our nation.
Every one of us, democrat and republican should be seething, fire spitting angry about this and ready to march in unity and mass protest on Wall Street.
Here is FDR in 1936. As true now as it was then. FDR was a great man and great leader. Where are the great leaders now? Working for Goldman lining their own pockets with our taxes and retirement money.
"For twelve years this Nation was afflicted with hear-nothing, see-nothing, do-nothing Government. The Nation looked to Government but the Government looked away. Nine mocking years with the golden calf and three long years of the scourge! Nine crazy years at the ticker and three long years in the breadlines! Nine mad years of mirage and three long years of despair! Powerful influences strive today to restore that kind of government with its doctrine that that Government is best which is most indifferent.
For nearly four years you have had an Administration which instead of twirling its thumbs has rolled up its sleeves. We will keep our sleeves rolled up. We had to struggle with the old enemies of peace‹business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering. They had begun to consider the Government of the United States as a mere appendage to their own affairs. We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob. Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me‹and I welcome their hatred."
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