Save Me…… from a society that continues to feed the rich at the expense of the rest of us

Did you know that there’s this amazing casino where people line up every day to put ridiculous bets on ridiculous odds. Sometimes these bets pay off. But more often than not they don’t and the losses just keep stacking up. But it’s the few times when they do pay off that give the players that special buzz. The buzz that keeps them coming back for more, betting more money and risking higher odds each time. And the great thing about it is that when they run out of money, they just go to the cashiers, tell them that if they don’t give them more money the casino will shut down and, lo and behold, they’re given it!

Wow! What a brilliant place!

Except that the players are actually the global investment banks, financial institutions and insurance companies, the cashiers who give them more money are the world governments and the money they give them belongs to you and me.

Isn’t Capitalism wonderful?

Now, I don’t profess to have a detailed academic understanding of global economics and politics. But I do know that capitalism is based on the private ownership of the means of production and thrives on an unregulated free market which dictates whether businesses succeed or fail. If you’re not competitive or efficient enough, you don’t produce the goods that the market wants or you don’t produce them cheaply enough, you fail. So be it. That’s the system. If you want to survive, you’ve got to be ruthless and be better than everyone else.

But that’s where I get confused. If the system dictates that only the fittest survive then why are many of these banks still around? Why did we have to bail them out in the 2008 global financial crisis, a crisis that they created? Surely we should have let them go bankrupt, just as Capitalism dictates. After all, that’s the altar at which they worship every day, when they switch on their computer screens and continue spending other people’s money.

But what’s the big deal, you might ask? It’s just money. There’s always more of it to go round. The consequences of the years of toxic trading by these big banks isn’t hurting anyone, is it?

Well, this week it emerged that the Spanish government plans to slash €30 billion from budgets in 2012, affecting severance pay for workers, unemployment benefits, wage packets, and long-standing union agreements that protect people’s working rights. Unemployment is at 23 per cent, more than double the European average, with more than five million people out of work and 50 per cent of young people without a job. House prices have dropped 10 per cent while mortgages have gone up and home repossessions have risen more than 30 percent. The Spanish economy is expected to shrink by 1.5 per cent in the next 12 months. Spain is not, of course, alone in Europe in its plight. And all of this stems from the 2008 global financial crisis.

Who caused it? The global banks, the US banking system and the bursting of the US housing bubble.

Who loses out? Well, for a start, the average working man and woman in Spain, Greece, Portugal, Ireland, the UK, the US…well, let’s be clear about this. Most average people in most countries in the world, actually.

But let’s take a minute to think about those institutions who put us there in the first place. If we’re struggling, they must be virtually at death’s door, having to work so hard to recover all those losses. Just think of all the sleepless nights they must be having. God, it must be terrible to be a banker right now.

Take those poor souls at insurance giant AIG, who took $170 billion in taxpayer bailouts in 2008. They were only able to divvy up between $218 million and $450 million in bonuses for themselves the year after. And that was based on losses of $61 billion for the year.

Then there’s the fragile little troopers at Lloyds Banking Group who got £40 billion in taxpayer bailouts but have only just managed to survive by chucking 30,000 people out of a job in the last three years. And you have to give a pat on the back to their former chief executive Eric Daniels who courageously declined his own personal bonus of £2.3 million in 2010. God knows how he managed to make ends meet on his measly £1 million salary.

Then there’s the brave bosses at Royal Bank of Scotland Group who got billions in bailouts, but could only afford to give 100 of their senior bank executives about £1 million each in bonuses in 2010. Former chief executive Fred Goodwin, who presided over the massive losses the bank suffered which prompted the bailout, had to walk away with earnings of just £20 million and a pathetic pension pot of £16 million. Three cheers for them all!

Then there’s the heroic bankers at Goldman Sachs, who also received billions of dollars in bailouts from the taxpayer. They were one of the institutions at the heart of the controversial Credit Default Swaps (CDSs) collapse which prompted much of the 2008 global collapse, and who this very week, were described by a resigning executive director of the firm in London as “morally bankrupt”. That baseless, insensitive and totally unjustified accusation will no doubt have hit company chief executive Lloyd Blankfein hard, especially as he only took home $7 million dollars in bonuses last year, a massive 44 per cent cut on the $12.6 million the board managed to scrape together for him the year before. I bet they even had to look down the back of the sofa just to get all that together for him, poor chap.

You see? Ain’t Capitalism wonderful? It’s survival of the fittest. It makes us all better, stronger, more efficient, more prosperous and happier. That’s if you’re a banker, of course, in which case we’ll give you more of the poor people’s money when you’ve pissed yours up the wall again.

In August last year, there was understandable shock and anger at widespread rioting, looting and arson in some English cities. Everything from widescreen TVs to bottles of vodka and sofa cushions were looted from shops and businesses up and down the country in what some people claimed was a twisted response to the dire economic cuts forced on the public as a direct consequence of the 2008 global financial crisis.

But the irony is that the average person in the street has themselves been the victim of looting, arson, mugging and assault for years. The only difference is that the perpetrators have been wearing tailored suits, gold cufflinks, and have been driving million pound sports cars.

When the average man in the street goes to work on the factory assembly line, he produces a car or a computer or a TV for example. A product which is of use in society. When the doctor or the nurse goes to work at the hospital, they often care for the needy and vulnerable in society. When the policeman goes to work, he protects public property and safety. When the banker goes to work, he produces nothing except more money for himself.

The British philosopher and historian Bertrand Russell said: “Advocates of capitalism are very apt to appeal to the sacred principles of liberty, which are embodied in one maxim. The fortunate must not be restrained in the exercise of tyranny over the unfortunate.”

Karl Marx said: “The rich will do anything for the poor but get off their backs.”

He also said: “The oppressed are allowed once every few years to decide which particular representatives of the oppressing class are to represent and repress them.”

Oh my god! Two quotes from Marx. That means I must be a Communist! No, I’m not. But I do believe unrestrained and unregulated Capitalism has failed us.

There will come a point where this abuse of power will not be allowed to continue. Society will not tolerate it. We’ve already seen the stirrings of rebellion in the Occupy movements around the globe. I hope it is simply a precursor of things to come. In fact, I am sure it is. The top one per cent of society might have more money and power than the rest of us put together. But then we outnumber them by a long shot. We have numbers, force, anger and justice at our disposal.

I believe it is time to redress the balance. I believe it is time we took our money back. And I personally don’t think any method of repossession, within reason, should be ruled out.