I encourage everyone read The Wail of the 1% by New York magazines Gabriel Sherman. It is an article that tries to have some sympathy for the plight of the downtrodden Wall Street types, but the Wall Street types have some type of congenital personality defect making it terribly difficult for us shmoos in the hinterlands to feel their pain.
"No offense to Middle America, but if someone went to Columbia or Wharton, [even if] their company is a fumbling, mismanaged bank, why should they all of a sudden be paid the same as the guy down the block who delivers restaurant supplies for Sysco out of a huge, shiny truck?" e-mails an irate Citigroup executive to a colleague.
I hope your not offended out there in flyover land, especially all you hard-working types that this market monkeys tried to wring every last cent out of your productivity. You know, its hard to get through an Ivy League school, much harder than a state school or a community college.
I wonder what his colleagues must have to say?
"I’m not giving to charity this year!" one hedge-fund analyst shouts into the phone, when I ask about Obama’s planned tax increases. "When people ask me for money, I tell them, ‘If you want me to give you money, send a letter to my senator asking for my taxes to be lowered.’ I feel so much less generous right now. If I have to adopt twenty poor families, I want a thank-you note and an update on their lives. At least Sally Struthers gives you an update."
You hear that, you must thank your master of the universe for his wonderful generosity. Let's all start sending thank-you notes to Wall St. for all the great work they have done in improving are lives in individual ways. We little serfs can be cut off in a moments notice when we begin to demand that these banksters pay their share in making this country a land of opportunity for everyone, not just for the future Manhattan aristocracy.
The writer shares a personal anecdote of sharing drinks with a trader friend who "attached to [her] Blackberry" with the implication being that she has no life because her work is always with her. Having been an organizer, I know what that's like, as many people on the site probably do as well. But you know, it's a sacrifice for her. Mr. Sherman then writes:
Now, a lot of people in New York have BlackBerrys, and few of them expect to be paid $2 million to check their e-mail in the middle of the night. But embedded in her comment is the belief shared on Wall Street but which few have dared to articulate until now: Those who select careers in finance play an exceptional role in our society. They distribute capital to where it’s most effective, and by some Ayn Rand–ian logic, the virtue of efficient markets distributing capital to where it is most needed justifies extreme salaries—these are the wages of the meritocracy. They see themselves as the fighter pilots of capitalism.
So the crux, to all of this entitled asshattery, is the kool-aide they sell on CNBC. The notion that somehow the market is the most efficient resource allocating machine in the universe, something that is known as the efficient markets HYPOTHESIS in economics, and that our average, over-compensated, status obsessed trader is the magic grease that gets the cogs of capitalism (you and me) to sing high hosannas to the purity of profit whilst grinding away in some form of waged slavery or another. Like my girlfriend said to me once, the best liars believe their lies.
There's also a nice anecdote about the President in this article:
It should come as no surprise that being a banker—indeed, simply being rich—is going to be a lot less fun under an Obama administration. In winter 2007, as the Democratic-primary contest got under way, Obama showed up at a Goldman Sachs client meeting to explain his economic agenda to a conference room full of potential campaign contributors. When he opened up the session to questions from the audience, one attendee lobbed the question that was surely on the mind of everyone in the room. "Are you going to raise my taxes?" Obama looked out across the millionaires sitting around him. "Yes," he answered, without a flicker of hesitation, according to a person familiar with the meeting.
Stories like these about our President give me some comfort in this economic shitstorm. There is a core to him it seems, that can see through the bullshit that radiates from the centers of power. And I hope he never comprises this core. And I think this a core in a lot of us, this understanding that the massive salaries and compensation on Wall St. represent lost opportunities for children and adults who are suffering untold miseries prior to and due to the failing economy. And the mere fact that so much of this money that was "earned" by the banksters has been wasted on the ephemera of spectacular greed rather than being invested into the people of this country should make us all sick. And we should make certain that Wall St. understands this.
Read the article, its long. My take doesn't necessarily reflect the author's take, and it may not reflect yours.