Hey Guv can you lend us a fiver?

[teamsaint]

directors pay has risen by 50% this last year

its hard to be surprised at this sort of thing now.

But this has managed it.

perhaps BTS of some of the others could let us know how this is helping these companies. Or our "pensions". Or Jobs. or Fairness.or the ordinary people who graft for little money to bring in profits. or the customers.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

er Monbiot on a rant but i like it


And another worthy pondering from the Indie

[Serial_Apologist]

So from that if the Waitrose ratio is 20 and that of Tesco's 40 then anyone who believes in redistribution of wealth can boycott Tesco's...so their profit goes down..so the remuneration at the top goes down.

Well, that would undoubtedly help solve some of the country's weight problems!

[teamsaint]

Oh please...where's my violin? Pensions. Where do you think they get their money from? It's been built up over the years by the employer paying in to a fund and, in many cases, the employee. That fund gets invested to increase the pension fund and also to fund the annuities that draw on that fund. If that fund has not got enough money in it then you don't get your pension. Simple. So some of that money gets invested in equities. If the share price goes up then so does the pension fund (unless Gordon comes along and robs the pension funds again...let's not forget that little escapade...or him selling off all our gold reserves....or for building up that trillion dollar debt that New Labour left the country with).

So if those companies have to attract the best talent to make the share price rise and reward them appropriately then I don't have any issue. Anyone reading many of the posts here (and also Monbigot's latest rant) would think that running a global multi-billion dollar company was just like running a corner sweet shop. It isn't. A fact that seems to have escaped most of the naive simpleton's part-time squatting outside St Paul's.

Whole new levels of patronisation ! Brilliant.

After another long day out selling British products to British customers to keep our little company afloat for another year, I don't have the energy..........

Except to say that for many , many people of my age, the only prospect of a pension is that we may possibly get the equivalent of £140 a week when we are 68 after nearly 50 years in work.

And it may not be that good.
In the meantime, I can listen to proper violin on my consoling 40 cd set of Beethoven which cost £25.

And boy do I need it.

By the way, my experience is that the people at the top are usually lucky rather than brilliant. Not a popular view among those at the top, who set agendas.

[amateur51]

...or for building up that trillion dollar debt that New Labour left the country with).

Wasn't a sizeable chunk of that accounted for by saving a few banks, quantitative easing, military escapades in Iraq and Afghanistan?

[teamsaint]

From that can I infer that you don't have any form of company pension or personal pension? If that is the case then whose decision was that?

this was the decision of a person who had to bring up their family on average money. In whose early years of buying a house interest rates were at 8/10/12 %.
whose wife stayed at home for 2 whole years to give their kids some proper(hopefully) upbringing, before returning to part time then full time work.
Of someone who was self employed for 20 years, and was frequently done out of money by greedy bosses who refused to pay their dues. (and who had to pay £3k for a hernia op because the NHS couldn't be bothered, really, so that I could carry on working.).
And most importantly, of someone who is now paying their kids way through university to the best of their ability, because I really , really, don't want to send them out into the world with an extra £20k of debt on top of the £10k they are going to have to incur.

Please spare me the sanctimonious nonsense. I am budgeting to BORROW £5 k this year to live on, so my kids have some sort of start in life, while we live on £100 a week. And believe me, I am not complaining at my lot....we both earn a bit over average wages, but there really isn't anything left over. Holidays on tesco vouchers, car is 11 years old.
Seldom go out etc etc. not a sob story but true. Believe it or don't.

Personal pensions? Unless you are on Doctor money, they are just a way of putting hard earned money out of your own reach.
Company pensions? non existent in large parts of the economy.
Public sector pensions? read the bits of the news you don't like, as well as the bits you like.

Perhaps I should just have chosen to be rich. So much easier.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

quite teamsaint

i would add that the changes to the tax and pensions regime have made me worse off having to switch out of draw down to annuity to avoid restrictions and more taxation and sell my fund for an anniuity which will give profits to Cameron's & Osborne's chums in the city .... never mind what Broon also did ...

i am afraid to say that i think Dominic Lawson has his facts about right on pensions ... it is a huge problem, beset by ignorance and resentment

[burning dog]

Strange isn't it because loads of public sector jobs are now contracted out, at the top by ex bosses now getting huge salaries as consultants, at the bottom by people now earning £6.08 an hour with no pension at all and little job security.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

the inequality of 1900 is coming back so much for progress eh

[handsomefortune]

Strange isn't it because loads of public sector jobs are now contracted out, at the top by ex bosses now getting huge salaries as consultants, at the bottom by people now earning £6.08 an hour with no pension at all and little job security.

yep - these members of the public sector are even more repulsive than dave & nick somehow. just the thought of them makes me feel physically sick tbh....what's more, they always make out they 'had to do it, for their family' .... normally a fair/reasonable excuse for recent excessive greed. but the difference is that the general destruction that the ship jumpers reek for all, is just a tad short sighted of them imo. i'm praying for an own goal for them all. i hope they come out in fatal spots, can't be cured, and have to pay some private pervert for the remainder of their days, just for the treat of breathing.

that'll fix it!

[teamsaint]

its not just big companies.

small companies are often full of over paid executives while people at the bottom work daft hours, and very hard, on modest salaries.

I can say no more.

BB is watching you.

Get to a certain level, command a big salary, move in, change things a bit for the worse, move on, repeat ad nauseum.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

next saturday

[Lateralthinking1]

This thread is essentially about theft. The theft of financial security, health, pensions, and so on. I am not advocating the following for legal reasons but it came in through my window on a piece of paper during a particularly blustery day:

Quote: "We need pressure groups that launch high profile campaigns to label excessive profiteering as theft. It isn't that the vast majority of people don't think it is anything other than theft but it all needs to be alternatively branded. Not idle chattering but a big stamp saying "Crooks" stuck on cards next to the products of the main offenders in shops. And there would be equivalent cards for the decent companies saying "Good Company - Buy This!".

Also, a lot of commercials on TV that look initially like they are advertising the products of these people. However, they have actors playing the role of thieves in them who are introduced half way through. You would have actors playing ordinary people who move out of their houses in tears and onto the streets. The commercials would end with the word "Theft!" in big red letters, accompanied by an ominous voice. These could be placed in the breaks of football matches, X Factor and Coronation Street.

We then need a campaign aimed at petty criminals. This would feature commercials along the following lines:

"Theft is a fact of life. Unfortunately it will never go away. Some of you watching right now will be involved in petty theft. You know who you are.

This commercial has been funded voluntarily by the general public. We don't condone what you do. We don't even like you. But while you and we may be different in many respects, it is obvious we have a common interest.

We are all the victims of a much bigger theft. The theft of the politicians, bankers, the directors of multinational corporations, shareholders and senior figures in the public service. You clearly know that as much as we do. And we have a request.

While we would never fully support your actions, we believe that you could do yourselves and us a very big favour. Next time you decide to thieve, thieve from those who theive from us all. We believe that you have the intelligence and the self-belief to do it. We wish you the very best of luck in your endeavours."

Stuff like this would really put the wind up the greed merchants like never before".

[Lateralthinking1]

......Oh look, here is another piece of paper on the windowsill that I never wrote:

Quote: "We need to launch new events to run at exactly the same time as well-known and well-loved events. An example would be "Children in Need".

"Alternative Children in Need" would take place on the same weekend as "Children in Need", it would be supported by high profile celebrities and it would have almost identical branding.

Rather than asking members of the public to donate sums of money, it would ask them to spend less by not buying products from companies who essentially are ripping off them and their children. Information would be provided at stands.

It is felt that any campaign which asks people to pay out less would be an instant winner with the public. It would also ensure that there was a more immediate general awareness of cause and effect and encourage beneficial longer-term impacts.

Where people are able to save bigger amounts of money, the campaign might suggest that a percentage of the savings is donated to actual "Children in Need". In this way, the alternative campaign would not be easy to oppose and could be presented as a significant contributor to mainstream charity".

[Serial_Apologist]

......Oh look, here is another piece of paper on the windowsill that I never wrote:

Quote: "We need to launch new events to run at exactly the same time as well-known and well-loved events. An example would be "Children in Need".

"Alternative Children in Need" would take place on the same weekend as "Children in Need", it would be supported by high profile celebrities and it would have almost identical branding.

Rather than asking members of the public to donate sums of money, it would ask them to spend less by not buying products from companies who essentially are ripping off them and their children. Information would be provided at stands.

It is felt that any campaign which asks people to pay out less would be an instant winner with the public. It would also ensure that there was a more immediate general awareness of cause and effect and encourage beneficial longer-term impacts.

Where people are able to save bigger amounts of money, the campaign might suggest that a percentage of the savings is donated to actual "Children in Need". In this way, the alternative campaign would not be easy to oppose and could be presented as a significant contributor to mainstream charity".

I like it - creative minds at work! You sure you were not the author, Lat? I never get leaflets of this kind through my letter box: just home cleaning ads from E Europeans, collecting bags from similar, samizdats from councillors saying they got the fence I'd never noticed fixed, taxi biz cards and take away menus from the same old same old just setting up, and not to mention the Streatham Guardian, probably editored by the BNP and not even covering the district.