Goldman Sachs vice chair: "Public must learn to 'tolerate the inequality' of bonuses"

[ccharles000]

Oh, the humility!!! Sackcloth and ashes for everyone else! An unbelievable class warfare quote of the day.

One of the City's leading figures has suggested that inequality created by bankers' huge salaries is a price worth paying for greater prosperity.

In remarks that will fuel the row around excessive pay, Lord Griffiths, vice-chairman of Goldman Sachs International and a former adviser to Margaret Thatcher, said banks should not be ashamed of rewarding their staff.

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".

He added that he knew what inequality felt like after spending his childhood in a mining town in Wales. Both his grandfathers were miners who had to retire from work through injury.

With public anger mounting at the forecast of bumper bonuses for bankers only a year after the industry was rescued by the taxpayer, he said bankers' bonuses should be seen as part of a longer-term investment in Britain's economy. "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.

http://www.pamshouseblend.com/diary/13704/goldman-sachs-vice-chair-public-must-learn-to-tolerate-the-inequality-of-bonuses

[MNDemNY]

1. K-Y may help.

:o

[Nikki Stone1]

2. Ah, the old "let them eat cake" routine

When you're running the Treasury Dept. I guess you can get away with saying anything.

[kestrel91316]

3. We're gonna keep robbing the customers and shareholders and employees,

and you all are gonna learn to LIKE IT!!!

[saracat]

4. Why not? Folks are saying we have to accept the inequality of healthcare!

[PJPhreak]

5. Bulls**t!!!

I Don't HAVE to tolerate S**T Motherf**ker!!

[Warpy]

6. I read that last night and found the elitist blindness mind boggling

If inequality brought prosperity, there would be no homeless right now, we'd all have high paying jobs and be planning round the world cruises, and no one in this country would have any financial worries, at all.

Instead, concentrating all the country's wealth among a few fat cats at the top has beggared the bottom 90%, something that was disguised for many years by extending them easy access to debt. Now the disguise has been ripped off, unemployment is skyrocketing and people are buying little.

What a surprise.

Inequality and the crash of an economy based on debt are what have brought us very close to a repeat of the Great Depression.

But I suppose Mr. Griffiths feels that if his bonus is increased by 5% this year, the rest of us will do so much better because of it. Elitists who are ignorant of everything outside their tiny worlds can manage to believe the most preposterous lies.

[FiveGoodMen]

7. That's the sort of talk that suggests extraordinary measures may be necessary

[Altoid_Cyclist]

8. This is my standard response to anything that reeks of "trickle down" economics.

I used the same reply yesterday when this subject was discussed but it will always work when there are such arrogant asses saying such stupid, albeit (Lordly):crazy: remarks.

Great song and comments by Bruce Cockburn on the subject of "Trickle Down". My take is... &%$@ the rich pricks who think that they're so much better than their peasant customers or servants.

http://cockburnproject.net/songs&music/td.html

[krispos42]

9. Okay, then give a $20 million bonus to the head janitor.

C'mon, rich fucks... "tolerate the inequaity of bonuses".

[PDJane]

10. Remember that Geithner

was one of the people who was responsible for the unregulated securities market, an acolyte of Greenspan and Ayn Rand, and one of the people responsible for the demise of one Brooksley Born, too....the woman who turned out to be right.

These are the 'elite'....and they are wrong, as they usually are.

[Hidden Stillness]

11. This is Their Real Mind-Set, a World of "Inferiors" That They are "Better Than"

This is actually what these people think like; this is a clear telling of their real mind-set. They believe they are "the right sort of people," they "create wealth, create jobs" (not widespread spending, and employees working, creating it), and that laws and rules are "impediments" stopping them from flying like eagles. They believe that laws are made by "inferiors" to drag the "betters" down, it is all "jealousy," they should sink or swim, and that the only place "the little people" have here, is to keep the party afloat by funding it all with taxes, which "the better sort" have every right to skim at every opportunity, because after all, they need "incentives," "encouragement," etc. "Nature" is just a "tree-hugging" word for resources that aren't being commercially exploited--a "waste"--and pensions and benefits are "just things to bleed me dry!" Getting rid of regulations so crimes that only hugely rich people can operate and commit; is "survival of the fittest," and fun...

All this, after most of them got their money from predatory investment schemes they don't even understand and did not do themselves but had accountants think up, or inherited it from their parents. "Pioneers."

[corpseratemedia]

12. i think the British public should dethrone the nouveau wannabe-to-the-manor-born kingboy "Lord"

[Jack Rabbit]

13. The French invented a device for people like Lord Griffiths . . .

Photo: Schmier Grafx.de (Germany)

[stray cat]

14. Not if the public is paying for them with tax dollars

[Vidar]

15. Nothing a guillotine wouldn't fix.