Re: Wall Street Plans $38 Billion of Bonuses as Shareholders Lose



On Tue, 20 Nov 2007, morrisjcroy@xxxxxxxxx wrote:

Personal question.

For what specific reasons do you dislike/hate rich people (ie.
billionaires, etc ...)?

Here. And, how about a specific reaction for all below that I took a few minutes to write down below for you.

1. As I have said many times, the criminology books make extensive reference to corporate crime (all managed, directed, and initiated by rich/powerful people) which is very well documented in court cases going back for many many decades. This is not "dislike/hate" this is crime. Crime not as an opinion but wrongdoing and lawbreaking where people are hurt and/or killed or their money is stolen, etc. Repeat: this is not _opinion_ or "like/dislike". This is not witch hunting. I'm talking--remember--about _crime_ as defined by the criminal justice system
and most countries on the planet have some kind of criminal justice system. It means jailtime, fines, even execution in some states.

2. As I have posted many many times the list of books (see below) that I have read about rich/powerful people who were in positions to _exploit_
poorer and disadvantaged and uneducated, exploit economies of scale, shift
risks to employees (eg. workplace safety), shift profits to executive wallets, coverup incompetance and unethical practices, and the list of injustices goes on (see below).

3. And, not to just 'pick on' private industry, I also blame heads of state for making senseless and purposeless wars (and being responsible for poor statesmanship) and we've had a few in recent decades. What positive purpose can you imagine is served by all of the wars that you can read about in history books that took place as far back as recorded history. We're talking about a very large number of people killed, injured, enslaved, and cities destroyed and burned to the ground going back thousands of years.

4. Is it a matter of jealousy or a matter of unfairness if I notice that people in high places have or get "courtesies" that I would never get
because I am not in a "high place"? Or, what would you call it if I notice that poor people are poor because they are not in a position to demand higher than minimum wage or less (by tricks of employment, for example, which make it possible for an employer to pay less than minimum
wage)?

5. I think it is possible for a few people to make a lot of money quite honestly. Rowlings books involving Harry Potter seem to have merit for the reason that they got kids to open a book and read it. How much she got in royalties and fees for rights to the movies could be reviewed in terms of a "windfall" that rarely comes along when someone comes up with something that becomes very popular. However, this "honest" making of money also comes as a result of "processes" that are definitely not available to the average person, let alone people at the bottom of the socio-economic scale. Acknowledgement must be made that some fraction of rich people give away some fraction of their booty to chairity and a few worthy causes. The other fraction seems to end up in playthings like oversized yachts, opulent mansions and castles, and million-dollar sports cars that some of them can't even drive. So, all that represents _WASTE_ and stupidity, pure and simple. Or, are we supposed to look the other way when they do this?

6. Would you like some more reasons?

---- reposted list of book titles (not recently updated) -------

This is a list of recommended books. No politics, no religion, no
history, few academics. Just basic CYA and crap to look out for
in the real world (and there is more crap out there than most
people would care to admit). I put this list together Nov 2 as an
FYI, partly in response to discussions on SRC regarding how
employees are treated and what they can do in terms of a CYA
strategy. All of the below books are at least indirectly related
to how you, as an employee (or even a citizen non-employee), can
be mistreated and/or misled in unjustifiable ways by "powers that
be" or how larger society as a whole is exploited for the
enrichment of a few people. Probably all of them will be easy to
find on Amazon.com as a used book for very little money.

---- relevant books I've read, recently, cover to cover----

Agents of Influence (by Pat Choate) c 1990, how the Japanese
have essentially won the economic/trade war with the USA.

Barbarians at the Gate by Bryan Burrough & John Helyar. All about
the largest leveraged buyout of the time (RR Nabisco) initiated
by Ross Johnson but the thunder stolen by Kravis (KK&R) and being
proof of the triump of theivery over business. Tens of thousands
of people were negatively impacted for only the purpose of making
a few people rich.

Chainsaw Al (can't remember the author). All about Al Dunlap at
Sunbeam. It is incredible how dumb and stupid and incompetant
boards of directors can be.

Confessions of an Economic Hit Man (by John Perkins). A very very
dirty business by which poor countries are terribly exploited by
certain predatory US corporations using corrupt practices.

Confessions of a Union Buster (by Martin Jay Levitt) How
businesses would rather spend the same amount of money to fight unions than just give the money to employees and the fighting
will be full of dirty tricks. The author admits all of what he
did that ruined people, ruined marriages, and ruined families.

Corruption and the Decline of Rome (by Ramsay Macmullen). A
masterful academic study of the decline of the (Western) Roman
Empire through the hypothesis of corruption. 200 pages of text,
100 pages of references & footnotes.

Debunking Economics: The Naked Emperor of the Social Sciences
(Steve Keen). A recognized economist shows how there are a lot of
serious problems in economics.

Devil Take The Hindmost (by Edward Chancellor) All about the
financial markets going back some 500+ years. Most of the time
the investors lost their money, the brokers/agents/scammers went
laughing to the bank.

"Dissent in Medicine (by Robert S. Mendelsohn, et al.)" A total
of nine MDs, as authors, exposing the scams of the medical
industry.

Hetty Green the Witch of Wall Street--Sparks & Moore (Like Martha Stewart is not a nice girl, Hetty Green was not nice, either. However, in her old age, she did give away most of her money.

Martha Inc (can't remember the author). All about Martha Stewart.
She's not a nice girl (CEO). She's been in the clink, too.

Perfectly Legal--The Covert Campaign To Rig Our Tax System To Benefit
The Super Rich--And Cheat Everybody Else, by David Cay Johnson (Pulitzer
Prize winner). Outstanding and easy to read explanations of serious
tax evasion and corruption in our systems, all to greatly benefit
the rich and soak the poor. Very outstanding. Many references.

Pigs At The Trough--How Corporate Greed And Political Corruption
Are Undermining America, by Arianna Huffington. Excellent, short, easy to read book on all of the schemes and tricks of executives
and CEOs to overpay, overprotect, overpamper themselves at the
expense of everyone else.

Stealing the Market - how the giant brokerage firms with help
from the SEC stole the stock market from investors. (by Martin
Mayer). How the money handlers cheat everyone.

The Challenge of Global Capitalism-The world economy in the 21st
century--by Robert Gilpin. He is a pro-globalisation guy, but he
honestly says he's not sure it will work; it has a lot of
problems. Very good.

The Creature from Jekyll Island (by G. Edward Griffin) The most
important book I've read in 20 years. Easy to understand and you
will learn how banks really work and how they create money. His
recommendation, however, to abolish the Fed is not a good idea.

"The Dollar Crisis--Causes, Consequences, Cures (by Richard
Duncan)" Explanations are good, easy to understand, but the
recommendations are bad. Good to read to better understand the
dominance of the USD in the world.

The Labor Story (by Aleine Austin), history of working conditions
which were worse in the past but still, today, if you are an
employee you are on the losing end of the deal.

The Money Culture (by Michael Lewis) several excellent chapters
about factual business scams.

The Truth about the National Debt: Five Myths and One Reality
(Francis X. Cavanaugh) This is a really terrible book, DON'T
read. Don't buy it, don't waste your time. Author is an
economist; all full of doublethink, doubletalk, vaguetalk, bait-
n-switchtalk, nonthink, nonsense. BS BS BS. Terrible.

War by other means (by John J. Fialka) Industrial spying & theft

=============================
Below are books I have not read but I have, or have looked at
parts of, and think are worth reading:

Nightmare on Wall Street-Mayer
Silicon Snake Oil--Stoll
Secrets of the Temple--Greider (about the '87 stock market crash)
The Greatest-Ever Bank Robbery--Mayer (the S&L crisis)
The Bankers--Mayer (how banks really work)
The Invisible Banks--Tobias (about the insurance business, dark
secrets)
False Profits--Truell & Gurwin (about the BCCI scandal)
Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television--Mander (for
your mental health, get rid of your TV set)
High Tech Heretic --Stoll (here is one on you should get away
from your computer and get back to meeting and interacting
with human beings, directly, again)
The Employer's Legal Handbook--Steingold (Nolo Press: the good
guys and would be worth reading to understand ethical
employment practices)
Using a Lawyer--Ostberg (how to use a lawyer and what to do if
things go wrong, written by a lawyer)
The 110 Biggest Mistakes Job Hunters Make--by Herman &
Sutherland
Double Billing--Stracher (a lawyer writes about how lawyers bilk
their clients)
Small Claims Court--Rudy (in case you want to make trouble for
someone who made trouble for you and don't want to spend a
fortune)
The Law of Medical Liability--Boumil & Elias (better know your
rights before something happens)
The Medical Rackett--Gross (More things to watch out for from the
medical industry)
Take This Book to the Hospital with You--Inlander & Weiner (you
should not need an explanation, better to read before you
go)
Don't Let Your HMO Kill You--Feinberg (see prior book, too).
Perks and Parachutes--Tarrant (how to negotiate better employment
deals, for the employee, parts of it look pretty good)
The Resume Doctor--Marcus (if you have some trouble in your
background, here is how to maybe help)
Soap Opera--Swasy (about corporate incompetance and ineptitude at
Proctor and Gamble)
Trust Me--Binstein & Bowden (all about Charles Keating and the
great S&L ripoffs)
Ten Cents on the Dollar-Rutberg (the scams in the commercial
bankruptcy business)

/////////////////////////////////

Over the years I've noticed that for non-rich folks who are very vocal
about hating/disliking rich people, their underlying core grievance
basically boils down to:

"If I can't have something, then nobody else can".

(For a long time, this is how exactly I felt about rich folks).

.

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