I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. Thomas Jefferson
With the media highlighting the issue of banker’s bonuses through Stephen Hester at RBS, I don’t feel I can ignore the issue when I’m thinking about things from a 360 WISDOM perspective.
What’s going on here poses a series of moral and ethical dilemmas which I find both interesting and contradictory. I don’t want to sit on the fence on this one, but actually find that I am; I have no sympathy for ‘fat cats’, and yet have every sympathy for them at the same time.
Strange eh? Now hold your horses and your righteous indignation! It’s all about context and perspective.
First: the thorny issue of public sector pensions. When I joined local government in 1987, private sector wages were racing ahead (think back to stripy shirts, red braces and brick-sized mobile phones.) I joined for a few reasons namely; to make a difference, to serve people and for a good retirement pension. I do not joke! That was one (if not the only) perk at the time because the pay was significantly less than I could have earned in the private sector. And as pension was based on final salary, that created a bit of ambition in me to get promoted every now and again.
If the government can retrospectively try to alter my pension, by breaking the terms of my contract with them, why can’t they do the same with other public sector employees, like Bank CEO’s and MP’s? There seems to be a bit of a blind spot here.
Second: As I and a few hundred thousand public sector staff feel rightly aggrieved about the changing of the rules after the event, why shouldn’t we also feel a little sorry for Mr Hester? We might not all like the size of his pay and bonus, but in good faith, like us, he too entered into a contract with agreed employment terms. Breaking this after the event seems an act of ill faith.
Third: We have our own ‘blind spots’; a warped sense of the worth or value of a person. In the paper today, I was reading about a star footballer whose weekly pay is £190,000. Many Premiership footballers’ salaries top £90,000 a week. So by my reckoning, in less than three months, they will have passed Mr Hester’s annual salary.
Whilst I get a lot of pleasure out of football and pop music, we perhaps should weigh up the value of the person, their talent and skill and then put a price on them. After all, we have billions of public money invested in the banking system overall and need to pay the very best people to turn things around. The consequences of this not happening could be dire.
Finally, it saddens me to think that people do everything for money nowadays. The pleasure I got from making a difference and improving the quality of people’s lives was immense. It’s an old-fashioned, outdated way of thinking I know. When recent studies said most people believe £50,000 a year would give them a good life-style, how many millions of pounds do people really need before they start to do things for the good of us all?
