culture of greed

A few days back I posted about US$40 million bonuses and today there is an article in the Straits Times titled, 'Fat bonuses for London bankers creating backlash.' The issues are the same, all the bankers are paying themselves crazy. And this has led to Tony Blair saying 'inequality matters. The big gap between those at the top and those at the bottom makes for a sick society'. And Cabinet Minister Harriet Harman called for 'action to stop these excessive ridiculous bonuses'. This perceived culture of greed represented a serious problem for business, acknowledged Richard Lambert, director of the Confederation of British Industry. I am not against individual enterprise and earning big bucks. But these fat bonuses are obscene and they are taken from the real owners and workers who have no control over them. It is left to a few sharks at the top to decide how much to share the loot. There is no control and accountability to the real owners, the minority shareholders, the small people in the streets. What corporate governance when everyone is scratching everyone's back? Power must be returned to the real owners of the wealth, and profits must be spread more downwards to the workers that are struggling to make ends meet. Why would these greedy honchos want so much money when a year's bonus is enough to last them several generations? It is all greed and the lack of corporate governance to control the excesses. In today's Straits Times there was another article about the role of independent directors and accountability. I don't think the problem is just in the independent directors.