Jim Hightower: Wall Streeters Want Our Pity -- Gimme a Break

[G_j]

http://www.alternet.org/workplace/126505/wall_streeters_want_our_pity_--_gimme_a_break/

Wall Streeters Want Our Pity -- Gimme a Break
By Jim Hightower, Creators Syndicate. Posted February 13, 2009.

Those poor, unappreciated Wall Street execs keep whining about the prospect of pay caps. Someone pass a hankie.

Editor's Note: It looks like the language to cap exec pay may end up being cut from the stimulus bill by Congress.

Listen intently, and you can hear the faint music of the band coming from over the hills. Their drums are pounding out a steady cadence, the bagpipes are wheezing mournfully, and the fifes are trilling plaintively. Coming straight at you, it's The Musicale Marching Pity Corps from Wall Street!

This big banker band -- including a line of baton-twirling lobbyists and a chorus of right-wing talk show yakkers -- is on the march because Obama and other dastardly Democrats have proposed to cap the outrageous pay, bonuses and perks that bailed-out Wall Streeters keep grabbing for themselves. The band's whining refrain (note: You might want to reach for your hankie before reading this) is that these princes of high finance are being picked on.

Yes, trumpet the bankers, we make a lot of money, but we deserve it, and the system cannot function without such rewards for us. Indeed, sniffs a Wall Street consultant, "taxpayers should want banks to retain the cream of the crop." Uh, sir -- wouldn't that be the same cream that has soured America's entire financial system?

Well, they snap, you riff-raffers just don't get it. "The pay scale for Wall Street is different (than) the pay scale for America," explained the chief lobbyist for the Financial Services Roundtable in an ABC News interview this month. "So these numbers look large, but the market value for these executives -- there's a very small talent pool of individuals that have the education, experience and knowledge to operate a global, international services firm in this day and age."

The lobbyist then tried tugging at our heartstrings: "I don't think the issue is a dollar amount. It's being paid what you're worth. Would you be willing to work for less than what you think you're worth?" he asked.

If ignorance is bliss, this guy must be ecstatic. Most Americans are working for less than they think they're worth! Ask a schoolteacher.

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[boomerbust]

1. Today on CNBC

The Wall Street thugs were whining that they were suffering from the lack of cash flow.:eyes: