If there’s ever been a call to arms in the history of this website, now is the time. For teachers, doctors, laid-off bankers and anyone who flies economy in this economy, this is our moment of truth!
The time has come to put our muscle where our mouth is, to throw away our shrimp forks, dust off our pitchforks, and join forces with…The Remuneration Revolution.
Yes, the outrage surrounding pay of financial executives amidst this credit crisis has been breathtaking. And for good reason. After receiving billions in taxpayer bailouts, City bourgeoisie have demonstrated that there is no depth to their shamelessness as they paid themselves bonuses with these very billions. They have a lot of nerve - I’ll give 'em that.
But you get the distinct sensation that if even one of them stepped out of their sprawling mansions in broad daylight, they would be attacked and eaten by pitchfork-carrying mobs. Ironically, their pay now is a fraction of what it has been in previous years - and the good times rolled without so much as a peep from the general, tryin’-to-pay-the-bills populace.
Alas, we - as a society - are going through a serious systemic, cultural, political/economic shift that we haven’t seen since the French Revolution. In earlier periods of political and social upheaval, violence, executions and barricades accompanied revolts against the privileged. But in our modern-day revolution, Obama took on the nobles purely via capping pay to $500,000 for execs who received part of that $700 billion bailout.
His riposte, while genuine, is arguably a little light. Shouldn’t those responsible for the foolish risk-taking and Ponzi-scheming be forced to give back ALL of their deviously-won riches? Shouldn’t we be going after their Versailles-styled castles and drinking THEIR champagne, rather than paying them to keep guzzling their own?
I’d like to rally the troops, march the streets and hound those hooligans until they salute a new kind of Square Mile reality, particularly that:
1. Bonuses should only be paid from profits.
2. Bankers who are paid bonuses out of taxpayer funds will, naturally, become property of the taxpayers (as will their houses, cars and children.)
3. Whoever peddled the black art of severance pay - the idea that you can fail at a job and still walk off with a $100 million (or bigger) bag of cash - will necessarily be sent to the guillotine.
Of course, the abolition of the financial monarchy doesn’t mean we need to take to storming Boards of Directors in the same way the French went storming the Bastille. But they do need to give back - or at least, significantly tone down - their bonuses, snazzy cars, foie gras and Cuban cigars.
Will it hurt?
Sure - but not nearly as much as the guillotine.