We have a human disaster of enormous proportions. We have 15 million persons unemployed. Thousands are on the brink of losing their homes. As of this December, 1.7 million unemployed will exhaust their benefits. They may be homeless at this holiday time. Some 400,000 persons exhausted their benefits in the month of October.
Now, as reported in BusinessWeek, one lone economist, Katerina Alexandraki, is asking Wall Streeters to give their bonuses to the homeless and unemployed. She has set up a website, Bonus for Homes, and started a campaign to distribute the monies to low-income earners and the unemployed.
The Federal Reserve pledged $11.2 trillion dollars to bail out the bankers and support the financial industry, but did nothing to help the unemployed. The bankers made huge profits this year, but instead of bolstering their balance sheets they are giving out record bonuses. Goldman Sachs Group (NYSE: GS) for example, has set aside $16.7 billion dollars, or 43% of earnings, for compensation and bonuses. If you were to divide up the $16.7 billion by the 15 million unemployed, each Bob Cratchit would receive about $1,100. And that is just Goldman. Multiply this by the hundreds of Wall Street firms and hedge funds and other financial groups, and it's likely that this number could be close to $10,000 per person.
So, the challenge to the bankers and and the entire financial industry is: Give up your bonus. Help someone in need.
Do you agree that this is a good idea?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
11-01-2009 @ 5:06PM
william lindblad said...
A better one would be that these same bankers had remained true to being responsible as lenders and financiers and as such, this whole mess could have been avoided.
I really doubt that anyone is going to willingly give up their bonus. The bonus that the taxpayer has paid for. As a matter of fact, it appears that the public is well aware that there will be even more of this insult coming. The bonus system will survive on the backs of ever increasing credit card rates. It is little more than a rape of the public.
Remember to thank your favorite elected official(s) on election day.
11-01-2009 @ 8:36PM
wdmurphy said...
Are you on drugs with thinking like that? Do you not understand it's not the greed but the power? Oh, how sweet is is to see the groveling of the working slob begging for help. If I had pity I never would have stole from you in the first place. The sweet part is there is not a thing you are going to do about it. When you have no balls to stand up and fight for what is correct I will run you over like the slobs you are. Now understand me, all you have to know is bend over and grab your ankles, as I want to see how you handle this.
11-01-2009 @ 10:26PM
Yon said...
Remember that there is an election coming next May-June and banks do not vote. WE DO. The problem comes from the fact that the foreclosed families drop off residency requirements and lose the right to vote. That is why they get NO money from our beloved electeds.