The problem isnt with the bankers, or the pay

[Churchill]

The problem is with incentives.

Got it in one!

My future Brother-In-Law destroys things for a living, he works for a safety certification house.

His company has just been taken over by a large multinational who have a performance related component to their bonus structure.

Because of the safety implications my future Brother-In-Law is exempt from the performance component lest it encourage dubious work practices in the attainment of the bonus.

[BrilloPad]

Is there a better solution? Capitalism is not perfect - but it seems alot better than the alternatives.

[Freamon]

The problem is with incentives.

[AtW]

The job of a boss should be to maximise the profit of the company and to make sure the company survives.

That's what bankers ain't doing actually - their labour costs are massive and bonus "rounds" are compareable with what shareholders get as dividends.

It's not capitalism in the banks it seems - more like socialism where workers (bankers) think they can help themselves to the cash register and award massive bonuses on top of already large salaries (not talking here about cashiers used in retail bank branches - few grand bonus for those is not a problem if branch outperformed others).

[scooterscot]

This is the problem with current management culture IMHO - short term gains.

If every company outsources or brings in cheap labour, very soon the domestic consumer base is gone (unless you have a purely export market).

Offshore outsourcing contracts are merely post-dated suicide notes .

Or WPS

The loyal company career man is dead and dying they just don't exist anymore. Short-terminisn shall not go away until the damage in society is repaired and that'll take years.

The governments of the past 20-30 years have utterly failed us by sponsoring a help themselves while you can attitude and that's what has filtered to every white collar man and woman, myself included.

It nearly always shall take less time to break something than it does to fix it. We've been breaking our economy for the past 30 years.

People need to change what they value and identify what we can live without before we can move forward.

[Goatfell]

Short-termism

So, in the name of profit, we should sack the overpaid British workers in favour of those in India?

This is the problem with current management culture IMHO - short term gains.

If every company outsources or brings in cheap labour, very soon the domestic consumer base is gone (unless you have a purely export market).

Offshore outsourcing contracts are merely post-dated suicide notes .

Or WPS

[Paddy]

So, in the name of profit, we should sack the overpaid British workers in favour of those in India?

No; that is short sightedness. Off shoring was a major contributor to the downfall in the US economy. If too much off shoring goes on, workers will end up unemployed with no money to spend on the goods made by capitalists. That’s what happen in the US; people lost their jobs when services were outsourced to India; they could not afford their mortgages. It is one of the basic philosophys used in Karl Max's writings

[oracleslave]

Once the boss starts to put personal gain ahead of that - we are headed for disaster. And if bosses are headed in that direction, the whole philosophical basis for the system is in tatters

Middle management incentivised to cut costs as opposed to increase revenue. I think I have banged this drum before.

[scooterscot]

The job of a boss should be to maximise the profit of the company and to make sure the company survives.

So, in the name of profit, we should sack the overpaid British workers in favour of those in India?

[Paddy]

The problem isn't with the bankers, or their pay, or the honours system.
Or directors
The problem is with the underlying philosophy of corporate capitalism.


The job of a boss should be to maximise the profit of the company and to make sure the company survives.

Once the boss starts to put personal gain ahead of that - we are headed for disaster. And if bosses are headed in that direction, the whole philosophical basis for the system is in tatters

What EO said

[EternalOptimist]

The problem isn't with the bankers, or their pay, or the honours system.
Or directors
The problem is with the underlying philosophy of corporate capitalism.


The job of a boss should be to maximise the profit of the company and to make sure the company survives.

Once the boss starts to put personal gain ahead of that - we are headed for disaster. And if bosses are headed in that direction, the whole philosophical basis for the system is in tatters