The editorial goes on to say that top bank executives more or less have to spend that kind of money – because of peer pressure. When you work in a field where the culture relies on heavy spending to denote success, “it’s like the same thing that goes back to high school peer pressure. It’s about fitting in.”[1] Well forgive me for not sympathizing with your plight.
You know, I live in NYC at roughly one fifteenth of that salary and I am able to sustain myself fairly well, although clearly not as luxuriously as some. Really, it almost makes me feel bad for the mega rich, myself, and the future of the country. If the people put in charge of running the financial system can’t properly manage their own financial lives on $500,000 every year, then how are we supposed to have faith in the industry?
Sure, many intelligent and decent people work in banking. And yes, I imagine that the pressures and demands placed on you are pretty great, but let’s put them in perspective for a moment. Do you deal with life and death on a daily basis? Are you sent off to fight a war you may or may not support? Do you work your ass off at three jobs and still barely manage to scrape by because you’re paid $8.50 an hour? Will you be losing your home because a bank hooked you up with god awful mortgage rates?
I mean, your job is mostly about crunching numbers, in a completely oversimplified definition. You run the banks that fuel the economy through credit. You make tough decisions and determine the fate of companies and individuals alike. Your jobs are difficult and demanding, but hardly the stuff of life or death.
When a complaint goes out from executives earning more money in one year than most Americans won’t make in twenty, don’t expect those complaints to fall on sympathetic ears.
Note to bankers: if you make $500,000 a year, you’re hardly struggling. Make some tough decisions in your own life. Pull your kid from that private school and enroll them in public education, then use some of that political leverage to get public schools some of the funding it deserves. Take public transportation. Use your collective real estate clout to bring housing prices in NYC down to a realistic level. Fly coach. Move to Harlem.
The American public might start to take that stigma away if the financial industry fell back down to earth. Now we’ll just have to wait for entertainers and athletes. Here’s hoping in a few years I’ll be able to afford concert, films, and ballgames again…
[1] Salkin, Allen. "You Try to Live on 500K in This Town." The New York Times 6 Feb. 2009. 9 Feb. 2009
No comments:
Post a Comment