Let the corks pop!
The say: „Hope dies last“ and yet it happens. Just before Christmas, the stock-exchange gurus let all confidence die: “Almost everybody has given up hope for an end-of-year-rally still to come”, experts claim. You may wonder why this fact is still no reason to agonize. The answer is quite easy: In the international boardrooms they will again acclaim themselves with champagne, caviar and women from the escort service.
Superman saves the world
This message from the stock exchange may shock the small investors but definitely not the bigunes; they have already feathered their nest, that’s for sure. A study of the Economic Policy Institute (https://www.epi.org/) displayed that CEOs in the States earned in 2017 312 times more money than their employees. At McDonald’s they claimed the factor lies at 3.101 times. Wait a minute: really earned respectively deserved? That is to say that those guys do a 312 times better job than their subordinates? Wow, I’d like to know such a superman. I guess he can also heal cancer, save the climate and terminate the migration and populism crisis within Europe. Just in time for Christmas. Awesome.
How they do it? Well, the magic word is “share buy-back”. Normally, share price and bonus are related to each other. So, if the share price rises also your bonus goes up. Easy as it is! The chairman is his own Santa Claus. He filled up the sack he puts on his table. Chapeau.
Carlos does it for himself
This year we should be extremely proud on the auto industry. No, not because of the share prices. That’s rather a reason for frustration. But I am really happy for sympathetic and socially-minded guys like Carlos Ghosn. It’s good to know that he will have the money for another yacht or domicile in London, Paris or wherever. With an absolutely reasonable (and still not sufficient) salary of € 78 million in five years, lovely Carlos received a lot of attention in the press recently. And well, I have to admit that it made me cry when I imagined Carlos sitting all by himself in a bare prison cell over Christmas without his beloved ones. And all that even though he did such a great job during all those years – and that’s the gratitude for evading some taxes? I really call upon your understanding, the guy has bills to pay!
And here comes a tip for all those who would like to be counted among the ultra-rich: In case you own more than $50 million (and any dollar of that is legally earned of course) than “Welcome to the club.” Great-Britain alone has meanwhile 4.670 of them – well, it is not so exclusively any more.
Being rich for dummies
You wonder how to get hold of so much money? Well, I guess that you grandma’s bank book is not enough. But fortunately there are such lucrative business such as arms trade. The weapon’s business has good growth rates world-wide. Number one is this business is our friend, the United States, with 57 % of the whole volume. Number two for the first time is Russia with 9,5 %, displacing Great-Britain. Germany also holds a respectable rank with 2,1 %.
Beyond all sarcasm the tragedy behind all those honorable deals is staggering. Thereby I am thinking of the vicious circle that has reached us in terms of the refugee crisis in summer 2015 for the first time. The question of (economic) migrants has been keeping likewise politicians and society busy for more than three years. Unfortunately, can be stated, it is misused in public discourse as figleaf to deal with symptoms rather than reasons. In the end the question how geopolitical attempts, economic demands and the obtainment of a self-determined life of citizens of refugee areas can be conciliated remains unsolved. One thing is obvious: this is not an easy task to solve. And moreover the answer could be an inconvenient truth. A bitter pill that is not easy to swallow by the public and might force some politicians to resign from their seals. This where the buck stops. The question each politician has to answer for himself is: Can I keep my office if I tell the voter that his high living standard is part of the problem?
Empowerment instead of self-deception?
So what can we do? To remain in a good temper and let the corks plop on New Year’s Eve despite or exactly because of this misery? Or how about that: Why not letting the people from the respective areas speak for themselves and listen to them instead of supplying oneself with a good conscious through tenth payment or compulsory donations at Christmas time? Anybody, who wants to get to know more about this topic should take a look into Gernot Wolfram’s essay “The art of speaking for oneself.”
