Public must learn to 'tolerate the inequality' of bonuses, says Goldman Sachs vice-chairman
Bankers' soaring pay is an investment in the economy, Lord Griffiths tells public meeting on City morality
Speaking to an audience at St Paul's Cathedral in London about morality in the marketplace last night, Griffiths said the British public should "tolerate the inequality as a way to achieve greater prosperity for all".
(....) "I believe that we should be thinking about the medium-term common good, not the short-term common good ... We should not, therefore, be ashamed of offering compensation in an internationally competitive market which ensures the bank businesses here and employs British people," he said.
(Note: if you want a more substnatial diary on this topic, go read and recommend the earlier one by NBBooks)
This is the usual trickle down argument, with a hint of extorsion: "if we don't get our unlimited bonuses, you'll lose your job." That's the extent of their argument:
- No acknowledgement that the financial sector caused the current crisis and caused the unemployment we know.
- No nod to the fact that top incomes have grown massively over the past 10 years, while everybody else's stagnated.
- No awareness that neither Britain nor the US actually created private sector jobs during the "boom" of the past 10 years - all job creation came from the public sector.
- And, above all, no apparent shame that today's bonuses are undeserved, being paid by enterprises that should have gone bankrupt last year had they not been expensively bailed out by taxpayers.
But, hey, he's right to say it: he's taken seriously, the Villagers and Serious People agree with him (no surprise, given that most of them are part of the top 1% of incomes), and nothing is done to change this reality. Why should they behave any differently?
In fact, it could be argued that they enjoy rubbing it in our powerless faces.