Defining Greed

carolt

Don't think it's one of your best, Generali - it seems to be rather hammering the point home, IMHO.

Is there anyone who equates salary for work done with 'greed'? I think the confusion seems to lie over salary for work NOT done ie bankers who failed in their duty and cost the taxpayer millions.

I didn't hear loud shrieks - on here or anywhere else - at bankers' salaries when bankers were seen to be doing their jobs well and creating wealth for the economy.

Given that they've now been shown to have been doing the reverse ie crashing the economy, I don't think it's unreasonable to label their demands for undiminished pay as 'greedy'.

In fact, I'd say that was quite a kind adjective. For that kind of abuse.

IveSeenTheLight

Generali wrote: »

A good friend of mine made a net profit of over [FONT=verdana, arial]£180,000,000 for the insurance company he works for and will get a bonus of about [/FONT][FONT=verdana, arial]£1,000,000 or 0.55%. Is he greedy or successful?[/FONT]

I don't think he personnaly made the company a nett profit of £180 Million.
more likely there is a team of people that helped to achieve this.

I have no quarels over bonuses but to answer your question, it becomes even harder for morality as your friend works for an insurance company.

Is this nett profit as a result of loopholes etc to stop paying out on insurance claims. If so then it swings definately towards being more immoral

IveSeenTheLight

mrstinchcombe wrote: »

BTL landlords

LOL, where are all the renters, str's, students etc to live if you do not have LL's?

Mini_Bear

I dont think the increments are great enough - i think earning £500,000+ and moaning about how hard done by you are is insensitive to those around you but not greedy.

Generali

carolt wrote: »

Don't think it's one of your best, Generali - it seems to be rather hammering the point home, IMHO.

Is there anyone who equates salary for work done with 'greed'? I think the confusion seems to lie over salary for work NOT done ie bankers who failed in their duty and cost the taxpayer millions.

I didn't hear loud shrieks - on here or anywhere else - at bankers' salaries when bankers were seen to be doing their jobs well and creating wealth for the economy.

Given that they've now been shown to have been doing the reverse ie crashing the economy, I don't think it's unreasonable to label their demands for undiminished pay as 'greedy'.

In fact, I'd say that was quite a kind adjective. For that kind of abuse.

I've seen several posts equating salary with greed. Perhaps this has made people reconsider what greed means. Perhaps not of course!

IveSeenTheLight wrote: »

I don't think he personnaly made the company a nett profit of £180 Million.
more likely there is a team of people that helped to achieve this.

I have no quarels over bonuses but to answer your question, it becomes even harder for morality as your friend works for an insurance company.

Is this nett profit as a result of loopholes etc to stop paying out on insurance claims. If so then it swings definately towards being more immoral

A small team of 4 (2 underwriters, an assistant and a team secretary made the money). My mate is the senior underwriter.

They write reinsurance and the profit was due to a very low level of claims. My mate freely admits that there was quite an element of luck in there - hurricanes didn't hit the factories and Cities he was insuring for example whilst they hit the ones down the road.

He is very good at what he does too.

Thrugelmir

If you had put £5 million plus as an option now that would rank as excessive for salaried employees.

Dithering_Dad

Thrugelmir wrote: »

If you had put £5 million plus as an option now that would rank as excessive for salaried employees.

Why?

oldMcDonald

I don't think greed is always linked to salary. You don't have to read many posts on this forum until you come across someone in a huge amount of debt. Sure, some debt is built up through no fault of ones own (e.g. you lose your job and outgoings exceed income - I know there is an arguement there that one should have savings, but it's just an example), so I see a lot of debt as being down to greed: A newer car than one can afford, tat from Argos / IKEA, fingernails done each week and spray-on tans...whats the expression? A champagne lifestyle on a lemonade budget.

What I'm trying to say is that, IMO, greed is not so much about household income as much as it is about lifestyle. Someone earning £180k may be earning that amount for a very good reason, it's how they live their lives that defines to me how 'greedy' they are.

botchjob

what a dumb poll

Thrugelmir

Dithering_Dad wrote: »

Why?

As an employee of a Company you only have a certain value to the business. As the individual themselves is taking no risk, no downside other than losing their job. As opposed to an entrepreneur for instance that secures all his personal assets to finance his business. If the business fails they will lose everything.

I believe in the free market, but there has to be an element of fairness in the world.