Bonus!!

The Beard, as some of you are aware, or in true Heisenbergian fashion, aren't at exactly the same time, has often said that in order to save the world, it must become profitable... for an example, the moment big companies realise that they will make substantially more money cleaning up the atmosphere than they do polluting it, then you can almost guarantee that fresh air will be the big thing... likewise, when aid organisations struggling to save lives in Africa, Asia and other such places complain that they don't get enough help quickly enough, they are in fact missing a trick... they actually need to approach the big multinationals, and tell them that it is within their interests to make sure everyon ein these places is adequately fed...

But why, I hear you ask?? It's quite simple really... if too many people in the developing world die, then all these big firms have suddenly lost their large, cheap workforces... which means getting stuff produced in the expensive bits of Europe and the USA.... and that means having to pay more for your trainers folks.... even worse from the companes' points of view, it means that the average employee won't actually be able to afford them... which means either upping pay, or lowering prices... and either of those would be disastrous for the people with money... after all, how would they manage if their incomes decreased to around the two million a year mark...

So, the news that the boss of RBS has declined his bonus has had a mixed reaction... the Beard personally thinks that he should have refused it before all the fuss... that would have set a good precedent and been a PR miracle... and, lets be honest, he hasn't really lost much, has he...??? The Banks, however, feel that this is a bad thing... after all, if we stopped all the big banking bosses getting undeserved bonuses, how would they convince people of the right calibre to do the job?? I mean, a salary in 6 figures just won't cut it... The Beard remembers the days when bonuses were just that... rewards for doing something above and beyond... for example, if you made a really good sale that netted your company a healthy income, after working exceptionally hard and overcoming many obstacles, then you got some sort of bonus.. if you just did the job you were contracted for, you didn't... as an example... a worker at Fords once figured out how the company could save an awful lot of money... now, working out things like this wasn't his job... so, when Ford looked at his scheme and saw that it would work, they gave him a new car... Bonus!!

The problem is though, people in certain walks of life got so used to their business overperforming, and thus so used to gaining bonuses, that they came to expect them as a right... and we all know where the Beard stands on rights... so we get the examples of people making realy big cock ups, and yet still getting rewarded... big bankers... think on this... if one of your shop front staff, completely off their own back, decided to lend thousands of pounds to people who had no hope of paying it back, would they get a bonus, or a disciplinary action..???

Of course, there are several solutions to all of this... one is to admit that capitalism was all a big con, and overturn it, replacing it with one of the other big cons, or to regulate it better.... now, the Beard has nothing special against capitalism... no more so than any other system... the whole idea that working hard increases the prosperity of the nation and therefore increases the workers' standards of living is in itself not bad... the idea that wealth filters down from above, that the rich improve the lot of the poor in order that the poor can work harder to increase the wealth of the rich is not necessarily a bad thing... and in part it does seem to work... until you realise that people are involved... and one day, one of those people suddenly realises that he or she doesn't actually have to let an awful lot of his wealth filter down... that he or she can actually keep hold of most of it, possibly even all of it, because the poor can't actually stop him or her... because the only options open to the poor are put up with it, or starve... and once greed gets in there, it all falls down... as do all other political systems...

The problem is, then, that if we want to regulate capitalism, the only people in a position to do it are the people at the top... and if they were content to live their lives on a few million quid, rather than a few billion... well... who knows... the introduction of a maximum wage would help, set at, maybe, whatever the premier of the nation is on... although that could lead to spiralling pay rises for politicians, and none of us want that... better would be a system which allows bosses to earn a maximum of 10 times what their lowest paid full time worker gets... which may even lead to an increase in bottom end pay.... and it doesn't have to be onerous... if your lowest paid employee gets 15000 a year, typical wages in retail and manufacturing, well, it gives the boss a solid 150,000 a year... and put bluntly, if you can't live on that, you really aren't trying... and bonuses too should be limited, to maybe half a years salary... and, in a more radical vein... bosses; your success would not have been possible were it not for your workforce... so lets have a rule that if the bosses get a bonus, then all employees receive one pro rataed according to their pay... after all, if you've been so successful as to warrant a bonus, then you should be able to afford to spread it around....

On a totally unrelated note, last Friday saw Holocaust memorial day.... and the Beard was again carrying around a purple triangle... as opposed to the almost universal yellow star of David.... now, lest you think this is some anti semitic holocaust denial thing, may I clarify... and take you back once more to the Germany of the 1930s... along with the Jews, several other classes of people were "removed" from society... Gays, Blacks, the mentally disabled, Gipsies.. and among them all one group which stands out... the only group who actually had the choice of going to the camps or not... imagine if you were told that by signing a piece of paper swearing allegiance to the Reich, you would be allowed to go home and carry on as if nothing was happening... well, that's what happened to the Bible Students... they could even have lied on the form, and got out of it... but almost to a man and woman, they refused to sign, saying that rather than deny their beliefs they'd go to the concentration camps.... many survivors of the camps have said that the presence of the Bible Students in the camps, with their steadfast faith in God, and their refusal to become downhearted in the face of terror, made the unbearable almost bearable...

Now, which of us, placed in the same position, would show such strength?? Or would we be like Niemoller's people of "First, they came..."?? People like the Bible Students, those who have the strength or sheer bloody mindedness to stand up and say what they feel is right or wrong, despite the consequences, and to take those consequences calmly, without compromise, are the people who make a real difference... had their been more like them in the thirties, who knows what would not have happened... Their descendants are still around... they've changed their name, and the Beard, controversial as this may sound, has a great deal of respect for them... so next time one of them knocks on your door, at least be polite... Jehovah has instructed them to witness, so that' what they do...

But today's rant is at an end... If the Beard has made you think, then I'm sorry... that was the last thing he intended... but until we all have the strength of our convictions and the convictions of our strengths, Wisebeard Salutes You!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!