The bonuses handed out to corporate chiefs in the City made the headlines again this week. The amount of money some of them earn is truly staggering, and socialist MP Peter Hain is right in saying that two thirds of them should be donated to charity.
City bosses live more comfortably than most of us. I do not dispute that the vast majority of them have worked exceedingly hard to get to where they are today, and to earn the level of pay that they do. But large corporations have a social and moral responsibility to benefit the community as a whole. At the moment, the focus seems to be on making the rich, richer. They argue that the Government benefits from such large payouts via tax. This is not disputable, but what happens to the tax? Where does that money go? No one can really say for sure.
Large companies should give these bonuses to charity. They should not have to be forced into doing so. I would ideally prefer it to happen without regulation. Corporate responsibility does not seem like a very big theme in the City at the moment.
Peter Hain is only speaking out against such a gross injustice as the race for the deputy leadership of the Labour Party intensifies. But I do not mind about that. As long as corporate fat cats are in the news and are shown up for being the greedy people they are, I do not mind.
Executives now earn 175 times more than what the standard employee earns. Steeling from the rich and giving to the poor is second choice behind executives freely giving away their bonuses voluntarily, but I would happily settle for that.
Yours, wherever you may be,
Daniel C. Wright.
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