City bonuses

[Alan Dale]

*Bob* said

'did anyone catch the 'city bonuses' story recently?

14 billion (that's BILLION) paid-out in bonuses this year - more than the entire UK transport budget. 4200 people in the city getting multi-million pound bonuses'

So what *Bob*?

[Jeremy]

A lot of these bonuses are going to be a percentage of the profit they've earned for the company. Fair enough, I think.

[Alan Dale]

And don't forget that most of the cash will go on houses gentrifying previously impoverished areas like ED..

Got to be a good thing.

[Brendan]

Yeah. I?m as jealous as the next working stiff about rich buggers being so rich but you can?t blame them. Everyone has the right to makes as much money as they bloody well can.

So long as they don?t break the law. Problem is the more money you have the easier it is to bend the law. Which is another topic all together.

[SeanMacGabhann]

And there was me thinking it was the workers who helped the company towards profitability

I'm not jealous of people earning pots of money or doing well but if I managed a company like that and "earned" that much money compared to the average employee I would at least be a bit embarrased. Decision making, long hours, risk-taking - all these contribute to a succesful CEO... but so does luck.

It ill behoves any human to say I'm worth X million more than you. It happens (movie.music.football etc)but only in business do people seem to believe they are GENUINELY worth that much more. Even Beckham appears to realise it's a crazy world where footballers are adored so much and get paid stupid money

[Alan Dale]

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[Jeremy]

Alan, I don't think that many multi-millionaires would choose to live in East Dulwich. It's not *that* affluent (and neither is it "previously impoverished"!)

[Alan Dale]

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[mockney piers]

A casual perusal of private eye every fortnight reveals a depressing catalogue of CEOs who are of a detriment to their businesses, take home ridiculous numeration and still get bonuses, then take home a huge pay-off as the company gets rid of their incompetent asses.

It happens, but it doesn't make it right.

[Brendan]

I wish I could get paid for my incompetence.

Oh and Alan. ED is by no means affluent if you compare it to a lot of London. Hell I can afford to live there.

[James]

Yes, thank heavens for city bonuses. As far as I'm concerned, each city boy is worth a few hundred nurses - as his salary clearly indicates.

And good on all these rich people doing up houses to get even richer. Well done! Congratulations for being born into privilege and doing even better for yourself.

[Alan Dale]

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[Jeremy]

Sorry Alan, you are just downright incorrect! The kind of people we're talking about... very succesful traders, company directors, etc... these are the sort of people who have a central london townhouse during the week, and a county house for the weekends. They're not going to live in a 3 bed terrace in an averagely priced area of London.

[Alan Dale]

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[SeanMacGabhann]

It's not self-esteem issues Alan. I do ok. By "back yourself" do you mean I need to back up my arguments or that people need to look out for #1?

It's not an esoteric debate - the world has plenty of examples of pay-gaps both big (US) and small (Scandanavia) . Guess which ones suffer less crime and are considered more civilised places to live?

And the link between big bonuses and successfull companies isn't exactly watertight. When at Disney, Michael Eisner recieved $15mil bonus as the companies shares dropped 21% operating income decreased by 16%.

But you already know what paper I read so I doubt there is any surprise ;-)

[Alan Dale]

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[Jeremy]

Brendan Wrote:

> ED is by no means affluent if you

> compare it to a lot of London.

Agreed. It's not even as affluent/expensive as Balham, and that's a total cr@p-hole.

[James]

Well said. I wonder how much money we WASTE every year dealing with social problems caused by the widening poverty gap? Perhaps even more than these greedy city boys (allegedly) blow on second homes in places like East Dulwich?

[*Bob*]

I'm no expert on this subject.

However, someone in my circle of friends is one of those 4200. He explained to me that (in essence) what his company does, is to buy up other companies, and if they don't make enough dough - or even if they do - asset strip them and sell them off for a huge profit - from which those at the top get paid huge bonuses. He was quite honest about it.

Still, as you say, he earned the money for the company, so he deserves it.

(Ps - he doesn't live in ED. Get real.)

[SeanMacGabhann]

lol

That is partly the problem tho isn't it - most American's people don't live in NY or anywhere like it. And I would rather live in Stockholm than Columbus Ohio any ole day

I don't think the fabric of NY would change THAT much if things were a bit more evenly spread (the gap between CEOs and average workers is 20 times greater in the US than it was in 1965 according to the International Herald Tribune - and I don't recall the US being a hotbed of soc-ialism* back then either)

* been a while since the ci-a-lis word stopped a post

[Brendan]

Anyone in ED got a nieghbour who only lives there during the week and works in the city? Would be interesting to know if outer parts of London have got to that point yet.

[Alan Dale]

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[SeanMacGabhann]

now, even I am not going to rise to that!

[Alan Dale]

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[*Bob*]

Alan, I'm assuming (by your SE5 address) that you have some way to go before you can do a bit of asset-strippin'.

But good luck to you - I hope that one day your dream comes true.