Forum Post: People on Wall Street - Get To Know Your Neighbors!!
Posted 13 years ago on Oct. 15, 2011, 11:20 a.m. EST by Reardon
(13)
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Does anyone on here actually know people that work on Wall Street? And if you do, are they greedy, lying, blood-sucking scoundrels its seems people are making them out to be?
I very good friend of mine worked very hard in college and early in his career. He put himself though business school and got a job as an M&A banker in 2009, when it seemed like every bank was laying thousands of bankers off.
He works over 80 hours a week and eats dinner most nights from a cardboard box at his desk. He gets very little sleep. He routinely has to say no to social activities because he can't afford it - after paying taxes (he pays about 50% of his income in taxes), student loans and New York City rent there simply isn't much left over to spend. A lot of his compensation is in the form of unvested company stock that he can't sell. He doesn't know how he is going to buy a house in a couple of years after he gets married.
Wall Street is not glamorous. The junior people work very hard for average cash hourly wages equivalent to a good auto mechanic, yet have invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in their education. It is not what the media make it out to be.
My friend did all the right things professionally and even he is having a hard time making ends meat. He is not the problem - we need more motivated people like him to help make this country great. He is Wall Street. Leave him alone.
I do not think that this protest is, in anyway, meant to be viewed as a personal attack against hardworking people that happen to work on Wall Street. But I can understand how your friend might feel a bit uncomfortable working there right now in light of the protest.
But the truth is there are many people that work on Wall Street who have succumbed to the evils of greed, made horrible decisions, some criminal, based on this greed and corruption. That has had disasterous consequences for our country. It doesn't sound like your friend is one of those people. Perhaps he is a victim of it like so many of the rest of us. The 99%
My definition of the 1% is those that use their wealth to buy their representation in government. Wall Street happens to be a big part of that. But it is not limited to Wall Street. Many large corporations and special interests use money to buy their influence in our government. And 99% are left with the scraps. Money speaks too loudly in our government and it is drowning out the voices of the 99% . The problem is not the junior, hardworking people on Wall Street. The problem is the political system that is driven by money.