bil

Matt, there will alway be top and bottom. I just feel that those at the bottom deserve better. I don't talk about taking it all away from those who work hard, but I do feel that the rewards for those at the top are too high, and for those at the bottom who do an honest day's work, too low.

In addition, I feel that if when you are at the top, you can't stay honest and give a decent day's work then you should be dumped at the bottom.

Why should the rich and the powerful be protected from the consequences of their actions. Everyone, but everyone should be properly accountable.

HBG

Now, more than ever, UK plc needs to make more money to survive. It's easy enough, though painful, to make all sorts of cuts in the public sector, but we still need to make money too.

We need to make useful things and sell them to others for a profit. The ones that springs to mind are controversial, but I can't help that.

We produce whiskey in the Highlands and cigarettes in Birmingham, which we sell to the rest of the world at great profit. We brew beer in Newcastle that sells well, and still make cars, even if the owners are foreign.

And people seem to misunderstand the meaning of the word Bonus. You only get one if the company you work for makes a profit as a direct result of your endeavours. Everyone moans about the bankers, me included, but they paid bonuses for past years when they made a profit, not the year they had to be rescued.

And nobody at Lehmans got a bonus when they went down, they were all sacked on the spot.

bil

How about base workers getting a bonus if the firm does well?

HBG

They do. My personal experiences are limited, but I know that an average worker's wages at BP is higher than one working at the local brickworks.

The utopia, of which I would be in favour, of everyone getting the same wage, whether a hospital cleaner or a surgeon, doesn't work. Such a system produces Stalins and Hitlers, and we don't want those back again.

bil

No-one is talking of a world in which everyone is paid the same. It isn't a Utopia, and certainly not wth some crazed despot running it.

I'm saying, by all means give bankers bonusses, but let's at least make sure that those who work at the bottom of the earnings ladder get a better screw.

teuchterpete

Not being pedantic HBG but Whiskey is made in Ireland, Whisky is made in the highlands! I'm an Englishman currently living in Scotland and I learned that one very quickly.

agoreira

I'm not even sure I go along with that, I've never quite been able to grasp why such a well paid group need to be be paid such obscene bonuses just to motivate them to do their job. The bonuses always seem to be paid whether they've done well, or lost millions, they can't lose. It doesn't happen in other professions, or if it does, it's nothing like on the scale these guys get. My son works for a large American company, gets a decent wage, and got £4k+ in bonuses this year, it's in shares, so he can't cash it for several years, but he's over the moon, could you imagine if you paid these banker guys £4k in bonus? The banking sector tell us you need to pay these ridiculous wages to ensure you get the best in the business, look at the mess these brilliant bankers got us in, thank God we had the best men otherwise we might have been in deep sh1t!

bil

My daughter gets bonuses, but on a similar scale. I agree that the bonusses are ridiculous, as I say, for the average stiff in the street to earn that GROSS, that's GROSS; not ******* NETT, not a bloody bonus, but gross, would take 40 years hard labour.

angiescarr

Lets just think for a moment who decides who these "best" bankers are. Oh yes. Those just above them who are earning even more from shafting the public and countries who are too weak to resist. And they are weak because they've been lead down that path... By whom? The Bankers of course. Lets not forget they don't actually PRODUCE wealth. Nothing. Nada not one cent of actual 'wealth'. They just shuffle it around, and in shuffling, scrape off as much as possible. It's all just licensed robbery IMO. Bitter? Damn right! Grrrr

Domino

I remember working for a company that paid a bonus, this was % of salary for all the bottom end, however, sales were paid % based on salary and average commission over the year.

As to Lehmans - if the company had been rescued they would have received their contractural bonuses - see RBS et al

teuchterpete

Spot on Angie.
People are paid money for moving around money! Its crazy. There must be a charge made for moving the money. Who generates this charge? and where does it come from? Seems the answer to the last question is obvious, It comes from US.

HBG

I should have known that, and blame Bill Gates and his spellcheck. I must admit I sometimes have a Jamieson's rather than Bell's, if none of my Scottish pals are around.

jackytoo

They are all at the bonus fiddle not just the bankers.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/topics/we...forecasts.html

HBG

I don't often think about it, but what difference have the million expats who have left the UK for Spain made to the UK economy? I'm not going to take the figures much further, I'm not clever enough, but say we each bring over 150K to buy a house and either work here or bring over UK pensions of 15K annually.

Not very patriotic of us, is it?

teuchterpete

.........and the eastern europeans who move to the UK using our national health service, schools, not to mention local housing, without not having paid into it. Now lets get it straight I am NOT knocking anybody for moving to the UK in search of a better life or employment, but surely it evens out. I have worked and paid taxes to the UK all of my working life. My wife and I have raised children who are now working and paying taxes to the UK. If we want to move to Spain and retire there ( and we soon will be!) why should we not be allowed to? If we are entitled to pensions and/or benefits in the UK why should we not be able to claim them in another E.U. country as if we still lived in the UK?