I all for punishing those bankers that have broken the rules, law and have been unethical and I personally think the authorities have been far too soft in routing out and prosecuting those that have broken the law. With the Libor scandal this would also involve Labour ministers and senior FSA and BOE officials, might give a clue to why certain people in power would rather see it swept under the carpet or hammer the odd scrape goat or two, like has happened with HBOS.
But why should all hard working banker workers suffer who have done none of these and if they have done good work for a bank and earn't them good money, why shouldn't they get their bonuses. I'm sure if you did this where you worked, you wouldn't be happy that some MP or minister drags himself / herself away from the important things in their lives, fiddling their expenses or flipping their houses to create such a fuss that your boss decided to keep public opinion happy by telling you, sorry no bonus. Too many people in the UK just love to talk down and destroy UK industries and they will then be the first to complain when the country goes from broke to destitute?
I'm sure with enough pushing and shoving, we can get most of the city to off-shore to New York, Frankfurt, Berne and even at a push Paris, but what is going to replace the £62bn they pay in taxes every year, not to mention the extra Government spending where they are all on the dole and the now non-existent money they earn't here and abroad, with much of it spent here, to support whats left of our manufacturing and services industries.
We can then use, say all those nice foreign banks that don't make nasty, evil profits, but nice social friendly losses like the Icelandic, Irish, Greek and Spanish banks in their place, don't you just know your's and UK industry's money will be safe.
But why stop there, why not get rid of Lloyds underwriting and all trade and retail insurance brokers, pension funds and stock markets to totally destroy all of the financial infrastructure that has evolved since the middle ages which was the funding engine for our 18th and 19th century Industrial Revolution, when we led the world. I'm sure we could all manage without by planting beans and keeping chickens in our back gardens. This is surely far better than a banker getting a bonus.
Personally, I think it is bad for Barclay's business that they have closed their tax avoidance division and made 120 people redundant, when all they are doing is strengthening the big accountants like KMPG etc. If taxes are low and reasonable, people will pay them, when their not then they will legally avoid them in every way possible and personally I don't blame them as who wants to pay more tax than they have to?
The basic problem we have is there are too many people in this country that are not paying their way, until this is tackled and resolved, then this big government, high tax, socialist country is only going to continue in one direction, downwards.
The section of society I most worry about for the future are pensioners as they will have paid into the Ponzi scheme to pay the last generations pensions and once the country is destitute, they will be too old and frail to work, but will not have a livable pension. This will also apply to anybody with a public sector pension, savings or an annuity, they will all be reduced to near zero purchasing power, once the Government has no choice but to let rip with inflation to inflate away our 500% of GDP private, public and industry debts.
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Topic: Strange financial world (Read 4056 times)