Posted on 10/19/2009 7:22:49 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
If you pressed a rifle into the hand of the man in the street and asked him to choose between two targets – an MP or a banker – who do you think would get the bullet? Tricky, eh? It is hard to know which of these two formerly respectable professions has fallen further in public esteem.
Some people might hesitate, like Buridan's ass, the rifle barrel weaving indecisively between two such luscious hate-objects. Most people would simply call for two bullets.
But then let me ask you a slightly different question. Which of the two species has managed to steer itself most effectively through the crisis? Which type of cockroach has scuttled through the nuclear blast of public disapproval? On the face of it, there is an obvious answer, and it is getting more blatant by the day.
Most of the MPs I know seem to be in a state of nervous collapse. Some of them are on suicide watch. Some of them face the task of sacking their wives and selling the house, or possibly the other way round. Some face penury. Never has Parliament been subjected to such protracted humiliation at the hands of the people.
Then look at the bankers, the bankers whose high-rolling risk-taking triggered the recession that has so exacerbated public rage at MPs. The bankers seem to be waltzing off with a song on their lips and their hands in their pockets – at least, their hands would be in their pockets if they were not stuffed with money. And when I say stuffed, I mean bulging, bursting, ballooning with the biggest bonuses you ever saw.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
The MPs were stealing the public blind with falsely reported expenses.
I thought Boris was supposed to be conservative?
The simple solution would be to tie them back to back,
then shoot one in the forehead...
Myself, I would shoot the politician, the banker
has only been doing what the government wanted him
to do.
As far as getting a bonus, what is he going to do
with it? Put it under his mattress? No, it will come
back to the economy. When a politician gets it, it
just withers away, or gets spent on building more
government.
I don’t see a dichotomy here. There are greedy MP’s and there are greedy bankers. Boris Johnson focuses on the later. We already know about the former.
Umm..bankers are supposed to be greedy, that’s what they get paid for.
“The point is, ladies and gentleman, that greed — for lack of a better word — is good.
Greed is right.
Greed works.
Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit.
Greed, in all of its forms — greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge — has marked the upward surge of mankind.
And greed — you mark my words — will not only save Teldar Paper, but that other malfunctioning corporation called the USA.
Thank you very much
Gordon Gekko, Wall Street
Equal amounts on both sides of an equation cancel out.
Screaming about "greed" doesn't really say anything at all, since it's a common vice among all men, not just bankers.
This frequently repeated lie has now became self-evident truth that requires no justification. When will this bubble of lies burst? Will we be on a hunt for those responsible for this brainwashing?
The crisis was created by the GOVERNMENT (not market) FAILURE in the form of the Community Reinvestment Act that MANDATED bad loans that could never be repaid.
On the other hand, confiscating vast amounts of money from the public and distributing it to your political allies is okay.
Gordon Gekko, Wall Street
He went to jail for insider trading, not greed.
“Isn’t insider trading a consequence of acting on your greed ? “
Yes. But Capitalism is based on enlightened self interest and making money is a good example of self interest in action. Greed, the obsession with riches while extreme, is not illegal, yet.
Not all bankers are guilty of insider trading.
This sentence actually makes sense to you?
Heaven help us!
“This sentence actually makes sense to you?”
Yes, greed is not illegal, yet. A person can be greedy and not a law breaker.
I find that people who object to “greed” are Marxists.
I am pro Capitalism. There’s nothing wrong with making as much money as you can.
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