Those folks on Wall Street who brought you the Global Financial Crash continue to wallow in huge bonuses, despite their lack of accountability and responsibility.
They received $28.5 BILLION in bonuses on top of their salaries.
My friend Sarah Anderson of the great Institute for Policy Studies has done the work and shed the light on it.
Sarah says, “[those bonuses are] nearly double the combined annual earnings of the more than 1 million full-time U.S. minimum wage workers.”
WAIT–COME AGAIN!
Just the bonuses paid to Wall Street bankers last year are worth double the wages of ALL minimum wage workers in America.
Try to follow the logic with me for a minute. Those who produce nothing, create nothing, serve nobody, but gamble with our pension funds and nation’s financial security on Wall Street make bonuses that are DOUBLE the total wages of the million people who do some of the hardest, dirtiest work in America.
And the Republican right-wingers say we can’t raise the minimum wage.
In a point we’ve made in this space many times, and in the book I co-authored with economist Dr. Richard Levins, money in the pocket of workers goes a lot further to boost the economy than money given to the already wealthy.
Ms. Anderson and the Institute for Policy Studies found that last year’s Wall Street bonuses, if converted to the wages of our poorest, would have tripled our country’s Gross Domestic Product, benefiting all Americans, our economy and our country by producing much more economic activity.
This kind of public policy cannot be justified. The wealth and income inequality, the continued impoverishment of our people, the new generation of children growing up in grinding poverty with no hope, the refusal to invest in our infrastructure and sustainable energy all weaken America.
Image source: www.ips-dc.org