bankers and politicians

I'm afraid we are going to have to take a deep breath and accept that government and/or parliament can't do much about excessive bank salaries and bonuses (or coporate pay for that matter). It is the price we pay for living in a free market environment and for relying so heavily on the financial sector.

The real culpability of politicians is not that they don't seem to be doing anything - fundamentally they can't - but because they have led us to believe they could do something. Time, then, for our political leaders to come clean and say they disapprove but are powerless to intervene with anything but blandishments.

So what's to be done ?

All we can realistically do, as a public, is to demonstrate our disapproval, ostracise those who display unjustifiable greed and let them live in their gated communities with no friends other than other excessively wealthy, greedy people. Oh yes - we should, of course be looking at ways to close tax avoidance loopholes.

We must, I think, also differentiate between the deserving rich, who create wealth, employment, exports, development etc. (Sugar, Dyson, Branson etc.) and the undeserving rich - you can decide who they are, but generally they make only money rather than goods and services. The distinction should be recognised in the tax system.

http://www.hoddereducation.co.uk/Colleges/Government---Politics.aspx?mRef=CNM01