<p>busdriver: post 285
What I am trying to say is that some groups have been hoarding resources for generations. And now it is very bad. dstark is providing all the links that show this to be true.</p>
<p>[Wall</a> Street Pay Reaches Record $135 Billion - WSJ.com](<a href=“Wall Street Pay Reaches Record $135 Billion - WSJ”>Wall Street Pay Reaches Record $135 Billion - WSJ)</p>
<p>Hard to believe…record payouts last year…while the economy still hasn’t recovered…
and now this year…Wall Street has problems…even with the bailouts…</p>
<p>"When it comes to paychecks, Wall Street’s law of gravity is back in full force: What goes down must come back up.</p>
<p>In 2010, total compensation and benefits at publicly traded Wall Street banks and securities firms hit a record of $135 billion, according to an analysis by The Wall Street Journal. The total is up 5.7% from $128 billion in combined compensation and benefits by the same companies in 2009.
[PAYC1]</p>
<p>The increase was fueled by a revenue rebound as the financial crisis recedes in the rearview mirror. At 25 large financial firms that have reported full-year results, revenue rose to $417 billion, another all-time high, even though last year’s 1% increase was just a fraction of the industry’s revenue jolt from 2008 to 2009 as trading and investment banking sprang back to life."</p>
<p>“Bank of America Chief Executive Brian Moynihan got a 67% bump in his total compensation for 2010, the company said Monday. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. tripled the salary of Chairman and CEO Lloyd C. Blankfein and increased his stock-based bonus 40% to $12.6 million.”</p>
<p>:)</p>
<p>10/01/2011
BAC stock price 5.96<br>
GS stock price 92.62</p>
<p>12/31/2010
BAC stock price 13.34
GS stock price 168.16</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I wonder if it is possible to be both hard-working AND poor?</p>
<p>
Yes. Those are the people being victimized by the protesters. Because when you’re at the bottom of the ladder, you have to show up, bridge closed or not. And why did they choose a free bridge to shut down? Just another way to victimize the poor by the elite.</p>
<p>
Ok, and?
If the average poor person has a car, tv, cable, cell phones, etc. then the wealth gap isn’t quite such a big deal.</p>
<p>Okay one family has some soon-to-be-outdated electronics which will be worth practically nothing if money needs to be raised. And another family has land, houses, art, jewelry, stocks, etc. Is that a gap that’s a big deal or not? When times get hard?</p>
<p>Tom Wolfe,* Bonfire of the Vanities*
</p>
<p>zoosermom…the inflation adjusted income is decreasing…</p>
<p>that means the standard of living is decreasing…</p>
<p>If the standard of living decreases…</p>
<p>Then people are going to buy less…</p>
<p>If they buy less…business people in the US make less…there are going to be fewer jobs…</p>
<p>and business people go overseas to make money…</p>
<p>that’s fine…</p>
<p>but America will be weaker…economically and politically…</p>
<p>and…</p>
<p>if people are seeing their standard of living decline…</p>
<p>they are going to be more likely to want a different economic or political system…</p>
<p>(that is what happened to my family twice over the last 100 years)</p>
<p>people are more likely to demonstrate…and wreck havoc on others…</p>
<p>I didn’t see these kind of demonstrations 10 years ago…did you? (the tea party and the occupy wall street group have many similarities)</p>
<p>And owning toys is not wealth…</p>
<p>and once again wall street is leading investors to slaughter.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>This is what stuck me about the demonstrations. First the right, now the left. No one is happy- at least no one in the middle class, of which I the majority of the members of both groups belong. The lower classes- those really in poverty- don’t get out and demonstrate. The very well off are hoping things stay as they are. What we have, I think, is a very restless middle America. One side mostly blames government and one side mostly blames corporations, with some overlap from each. Neither is going away any time soon.</p>
<p>
What I’m saying is that the poor aren’t so poor that we should stop investing in education, infrastructure and actual jobs because those are the things that will lift people up, not taking from someone else.</p>
<p>Yep, moonchild.</p>
<p>Well…zoosermom…after-tax income and wealth were reallocated by tax laws and regulation…or the relaxing of regulation…and the reallocation favored the wealthiest…(and others too).</p>
<p>but…the wealth did not trickle down…</p>
<p>so now you are going to have groups of people that are seeing their standard of living decrease…and they are going want to reallocate income and wealth in different ways…by using the tax code…or regulation…or spending…(this is the right and the left)…</p>
<p>(a lot of the members of the right are seeing their standard of living decline too).</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>OMG - YES</p>
<p>But the media has somehow convinced us it is. I read a lot of victorians. Wealth is not having to touch your capital. </p>
<p>-interesting family history dstark-</p>
<p>yeah…and people think I am a commie…:)</p>
<p>
In prior years, Wall Street accounted for 13% of revenue received in NYC. Now it is down to 6%. That’s a very hard hit, so, yes, it was trickling down and its loss is being felt. Also by the people who are losing jobs.</p>
<p>zoosermom…I was kind of talking in a general sense… :)</p>
<p>Well in a general sense, we are hurting here for the lack of that revenue. And now the entitled, elitist brats are making it even harder for the people who depend on Wall Street to make a living, like the shoeshine men, coffee vendors and such. But, hey, as long as those special people do what they want, it’s fine for the working class to pay the price.</p>
<p>I want to ask a question. Is the end result of globalization that the majority of US citizens can only make as much as sweat shop workers in third world countries? If they can get jobs at all? How will this work in the EU? What about the countries that didn’t join the EU? I am really trying to understand how this plays out, barring some dramatic intervention.</p>
<p>“I want to ask a question. Is the end result of globalization that the majority of US citizens can only make as much as sweat shop workers in third world countries?”</p>
<p>We are moving in that direction…and Europe is too…
I don’t think we are going to go as far as you suggest though…</p>
<p>Right now…the world is trying to deal with all the debt…I don’t know how this is going to play out.</p>
<p>Nobody knows how these economic situations are going to play out…</p>
<p>I don’t think it plays out too well. I’m worried.
We need to find new industry. I wish we were as concerned about alternative energy as some other developing countries, as I’m afraid we’re losing out on this opportunity as well. When the oil is gone, all bets are off. Maybe 10 years? Hard to know how much time we have before energy is too expensive to maintain the average American lifestyle. That’s when we’ll look back at 2011 and see that no, we didn’t really hit bottom yet.</p>