I left the Facebook group called ‘I’m pissed off that my prime minister’s getting S$3.1 million this year’.
Frankly, I used to be immensely pissed with the pay our leaders lea-duhs are getting until I read this:
September22, 2008
Up to 10,000 staff at the New York office of the bankrupt investment bank Lehman Brothers will share a bonus pool set aside for them that is worth $2.5bn (£1.4bn), Barclays Bank, which is buying the business, confirmed last night.
…
In addition to the $2.5bn cash pool, Barclays is also in negotiations with about 30 executives it considers to be Lehman’s best assets and plans to offer them contracts worth tens of millions of dollars. British employees of Lehman described the bonus payments as a “scandal” as they waited anxiously yesterday to see whether a deal could be struck with buyers circling the bank’s European operations.
I don’t know about you, but I am furious. Have they no shame? The turmoil caused by the collapse of Lehman Brothers almost a month ago is still felt in the financial markets today. Just how many people have been screwed a few times over as the markets went into free fall? And these guys get their golden parachutes?!
When I look at just how lacking in accountability from the likes of these executives in Lehman Brothers, I must really say our ministers are doing pretty alright. In fact for a moment, I almost agree with our ministers they are underpaid.
Thus, I left that Facebook group, not because I now agree with the pay the ministers are getting, but as thanksgiving to God that I still have my job (maybe not for long but who knows), the country I lived in is still safe (even though in recession), a roof over my head and well, the comfort and access to the Internet for me to bitch about the things I am not happy with this country. My only wish is that our lea-duhs will be responsible and that God gave them the wisdom not to falter.
Beyond that, I really don’t fxxking care how much money they are getting a month anymore as long as I get a roof over my head and a job to pay my bills.
And then I read this:
October 7, 2008
Have you heard of anything more outrageous – a week after taxpayers commit $85 billion dollars to rescue AIG, the company’s leading insurance executives spend hundreds of thousands of dollars at one of the most exclusive reports in the nation… Let me describe for some of you the charges that the shareholders, taxpayers, had to pay. AIG spent $200,000 dollars for hotel rooms. Almost $150,000 for catered banquets. AIG spent $23,000 at the hotel spa and another $1,400 at the salon. They were getting manicures, facials, pedicures and massages while American people were footing the bill. And they spent another $10,000 dollars for I don’t know what this is, leisure dining. Bars?
I soon will go to AIA to cancel some of my really crappy endowment policies. It is high time we start bringing the recession to some of these buggers and I’ll never ever buy another endowment policy again.
In fact, I have two that have been running since 1998, and when I considered the coupons I have cashed out every alternate year, and the current value there is in each policy now, it adds up to just slightly more than half of what I have paid to them.
Where did the other half of my money go? Now maybe this extravagance, and not the insurance that also comes with the policy, explains why it takes so long for our policies to actually start earning us money.
Bye bye, AIA.
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