Forum Post: wall st worker
Posted 13 years ago on Oct. 12, 2011, 9 p.m. EST by jaketaylor1
(3)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
Hello,
I am a 29 year old wall streeter who works at one of the bigger shops. Make good money but nothing crazy. Have worked hard to achieve where I have gotten, and actually enjoy my job. Am I the enemy? I know it sounds dumb but I am fascinated by the movement. Maybe its the media coverage but I feel like I shouldnt be happy or feel good about what I do. As most of you I believe the system is broke, but I think the system is in Washington, where a two party system gets nothing done not becuase of corporate greed but ideology. I feel unjustly attacked because the career I chose and enjoy. I dont know...I want change too, i dont like to see 9% unemplyed and people struggling to make it day to day..but selfishly Im angry at all the negativity towards the financial markets...Best of luck to all.
I'm sorry if you're seeing coverage, images or comments that are hostile and making you feel singled out. No one individual or group of people is responsible for the things that are going on wrong this country. Everyone want'’s to feel good about what they do after they put in hard day's work. I think the emphasis on Wall Street in these protests stems from the influence that corporations, who hold the greatest amount of wealth in the country, have on our political system and even culture. Over the past 30 years large corporations have been pumping millions and millions of dollars into financing campaigns of and lobbying our elected officials? Now, with the "Citizens United" supreme court ruling, there will be unlimited campaign contributions to both political parties. The amount of money funneled in to our electoral process will grow and grow. Just watch the coverage during the next presidential elections, the side-show of accusations, slander, blame and caricature asasination filling the airwaves and internet, all funded PACs that amass millions and millions of dollars from anonymous "donors". It is not private citizens for the most part that are funding these PACs. Then you have the major news networks, also financed by corporations, making Americans believe that's it's just not possible to have a healthy economy and provide a decent standard of living for the majority so you better pick sides. Why are companies and businesses with holdings on Wall Street so concerned with influencing elections? It is true that ideology is at at play here. The question is what is the ideology is behind all that money flooding into our political system.
Karai you rock!
Thanks!
This isn't an attack on the rich. There is nothing wrong with being rich. There is a problem with being rich and stealing from the poor. There is a problem with few people controlling the wealth, and to that end there is a problem when those who control the wealth are not helping their country and society progress.
David Walker, former US Comptroller General and chief of the GAO, warned before the 2004 election that if large economic changes were not made, by 2009 the United States and its taxpayers would not be able to afford the interest payments on the national debt. A study authorized by the US Treasury in 2001 found that in order to keep servicing the debt at its current rate of growth, by 2013 income taxes would need to be raised to 65%. If the United States cannot afford to pay the interest on its debts, that would be the final stage of economic collapse and hence result in a total textbook bankruptcy. The systematic crisis would in turn spread to the rest of the world.
How did this happen? Why is the US national debt $14,819,350,000+? Of the 203 countries in the world today, only four (!) do not owe others money. The collective external debt of all the governments in the world is now above 40 trillion dollars and this number doesn’t include the massive about of household debt in each country.
The whole world is basically bankrupt. But how? How can the world as a whole owe money to itself? Obviously, it’s all nonsense. There is no such thing as ‘money’. There are only planetary resources, human labor and human ingenuity. The monetary system regulated by Federal Reserve is nothing more than a game… and an outdated and dysfunctional one at that. Those in positions of social power alter the rules of the game, at will. The nature of those rules is guided by the same competitive, distorted mentalities that are used in everyday “monetary” life, only this time the game is rigged at its root to favor those who run the show. For example, if you have 1 million dollars and put it into a CD at 5% interest, you are going to generate $50,000 a year simply for that deposit. You are making money off of money itself… paper being made from other paper … nothing more - no invention - no contribution to society – no nothing. That being denoted, if you are a lower to middle class person, who is limited in funds, and must get interest based loans to buy your home or use credit cards, then you are paying interest to the bank, which the bank is then using, in theory, to pay the person’s return with the 5% CD! Not only is this equation outrageously offensive due to the use of usury (interest) to ‘steal from the poor and give to the rich’, but it also perpetuates class stratification by its very design, keeping the lower classes poor, under the constant burden of debt, while keeping the upper classes rich, with the means to turn excess money into more money, with no labor. That reality aside, there are other games in the system which have worked for decades, but are just now starting to bloom into the inevitable mathematic disasters that should have been anticipated 100 years ago. The point is, our system is broken. Simple policy change will not solve our debt problem. We need to alter the governmental paradigm if we wish to repay our debt. We need to end the Federal Reserve Board.
This is not a liberal or conservative issue. This is a matter of upholding the Constitution. Congress gave over the power of the purse in 1913 to a quasi-public-private bank called the Federal Reserve which manipulates global currencies. This is wholeheartedly unconstitutional, and at this point it's become immoral. It's not your fault, you are doing what you must to make a living and the system would operate fine without you, so you are not to blame. Although you should certainly join the cause because you, more than anyone should understand the inequality of the system.
No one is mad at individual workers. Reform is needed. Some of my friends who have worked and still work on the street know it.
You should already be able to see the injustices within the systems that you help run. The data manipulation for example- as Max Keiser puts it, the currency traders have pension funds as their clients. So they trade currencies all day long, and they quote the prices to suit their maximum advantage. Often, they will pick the highest buy price of the day, and the lowest sell price and basically skim from their clients.
You should see the ridiculous 'melt up' as Zero Hedge puts it, where the current trading volume is continually declining and yet the prices are rising. There is strong suspicion that Bernanke has agents of the Fed enacting a price setting policy. We can see the SEVERAL POWERFUL last-45-minute rallies in recent weeks. Does that make sense? Sure, the markets are fickle, but seriously, don't you feel something's up when you see half a dozen days saved in the last 45 minutes with an epic rally?
Do you feel that your company has the best interests of its clients at heart? Or do you think they'd be quite happy to zero out every account and pocket the cash - if they could get away with it?
Do you see equities and bonds rated at AAA that really, by all defendable standards, should be BB-?
Do you think that $250,000,000,000,000 is a sustainable and possible to service figure for derivatives?
Do you think that your business provides genuine value to the world, or do you think feel in your heart that it is little more than a parasitic middleman trying to squeeze as much as possible from the productive capacity of the world?
Do you think that CDO's are ethical in the sense that they promote responsible lending practices and reduce moral hazard, or do you think the opposite?
Do you feel that the size of the finance industry reflects a genuine requirement for capital allocation or do you think it's been allowed to grow too big?
I'm not tarring all finance with the same brush. We all know that allocation of capital is important. Some have finance to Haemoglobin bringing oxygen to the cells that need it most. If this system goes awry, perhaps by over-oxygenating the brain, the rest of the body will slowly suffocate while the brain is high as a kite ordering fresh blood by the bucket load. To support this load, the heart will grow and grow.
If the brain is the government, the heart is the financial industry and the rest of the body is the productive industry, you can see that this scenario is effectively mutually assured destruction. Eventually the body dies.
Do you think this could be an accurate reflection of the situation?
Senate republicans commit treason by killing 2 million jobs yesterday
I thank you all for the responses, even ones I dont agree with. I found the responses and views refreshing. I can say a lot of guys i work with look at the movement with an open mind. A lot of people in my age range I work with feel so disillusionedwith the political aspect of our country. I mean everyday on cnbc we have some jerk off like Paul Ryan and every other talking head yelling into the camera and not talking. We actually laugh at this, and you can even see the coverage on a cnbc as politically driven. I mean each anchor pretty much has picked a side, and thats were my issue lies. Yes corporate america is sooooo fucked up. But I look at the problem being more goverment based. I mean we almost didnt get funding to people affected by all the bad weather because of political posturing..i mean my god...
Buddy i agree the tax code is fucked up..Along with health insurance, social security etc..instead of worrying about Paulson and what he made, lets get ot real issues...
So i guess if you work on wall street you should be capped at say 80k? And what are they siphoning. Iis it because they are not doctors or non profiters?? I mean seriously, your post wreaks of jealousy not change..
2010 Hedge Fund PERSONAL INCOME Top 5 earnings (Only one year of income!) :
John Paulson made $4.5 Billion Ray Dalio $3.1Billion James Simons $2.5 Billion David Tepper $2.2Billion, etc.
All paid less than 24% tax rates on their income, none of them built anything. The list goes on and on. (source: forbes). No one deserves to make this much and then not pay taxes, all while just working in a small room contributing nothing.
I too worked in finance. Its across the board. I have trader friends under 30 who make almost $5 Million a year. I have a hedge fund friend making almost $12 Million annually. Even my Institutional "banker" friends make over $250K at a minimum. The average MBA banker books nearly $400K after a couple years on their way to making 2-3Million annually at age 40.
All while just siphoning from society. This isn't excessive to you?
Against the fraud and corruption that brought us the recession? For having voters have more political clout than billionaires? Want ordinary employees do better as their productivity rises?
Then you are not the target - come be part of the solution.
Well, not sure why no one commented, but thanks for your candor. I don't think you're in the 1% that the movement is against. just like people who are day to day workers in the government aren' the enemy. The enemy is, rightly, a focus on ideology over facts. But the facts are, that the problem isn't just in Washington, it's also in a system that allows people who traded horribly risky securities to do so without consequences. Don't know if you worked with any of these folks, but that needs to be outlawed like, now.
Ultimately, it's not about left and right, it's about priorities and allocation of resources. Other countries do very well with capitalism and social responsibility (Germany, Finland) and they think we're nuts for allowing the wealthiest control and own everything. I think they're right.
I suggest you take a look at these links if you're really interested in looking into this:
https://sites.google.com/site/the99percentdeclaration/home/the-steps-to-non-violent-revolution
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/10/opinion/panic-of-the-plutocrats.html?_r=2&ref=columnists
http://robertreich.org/post/10157767903
http://groobiecat.blogspot.com/2011/10/clipart-theater-occupywallstreet-points.html
I agree - this from today's NYT:
As the Senate moved toward a vote Tuesday, Mr. Reid made an accusation heard with increasing frequency from Democrats: Republicans were opposing the president’s jobs bill because, for political reasons, they wanted the economy to remain in bad shape. “Republicans think that if the economy improves, it might help President Obama,” Mr. Reid said. “So they root for the economy to fail and oppose every effort to improve it.”
The Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, replied in kind. “Democrats have designed this bill to fail — they’ve designed their own bill to fail — in the hope that anyone who votes against it will look bad,” Mr. McConnell said. “This whole exercise is a charade that’s meant to give Democrats a political edge in an election that’s 13 months away.”
AS you say, the two party system gets nothing done because of ideology. What I quoted above has NOTHING to do with greed, politicians being paid off, etc., etc. If the company where you worked had this happen among the top executives there would be firings and a reorganization by the end of the day.
We Have Permission to Change the System http://www.JeffBlock2012.com
thanks for posting! i just want to say that im not surprised that you feel that way. that some how you are "evil" just because you work on wallstreet. i'll admit-ows looks "bad" for you. i understand.
but i also what to say, that while you work there, your not the target. we are not attacking you perse- we are attacking corruption. we are attaching bail outs. we are talking huge bonus. its not about people who work hard like you do- im sure you prob work harder then the 1%....
i am sure that there are people down there, traders who work the floor and what not-that don't make millions a year. by default- you are part of the 99%. so don't take it personally. we don't want to take you out of a job. we just want accountability and reform- not hand outs.
lastly,. you being a worker there have an interesting perspective to add. and please feel free to join in the discussion.i for one, would love hear from someone who works there. please join us(a)!
i love that you are succeeding. the problem is the bottleneck at the top of the economy that strangles and deprives the system of currency instead of it circulating effectively and efficiently enough to sustain capitalism.
God bless you son. You are doing god's work.