Fuming at Wall Street

Posted by Marc Hodak on February 17, 2009 under Collectivist instinct | 2 Comments to Read

In the zero-sum world that most journalists inhabit, they can hardly write a story about the crunch in public services without tying it to the billions paid in Wall Street bonuses, presumably directly from the public treasury.  Witness in Reuters:  Elderly New Yorkers angry as crisis hits poorest:

In New York, with city and state tax revenues tumbling, benefits and services to the elderly are being cut, and many older residents are furiously drawing comparisons to the billions of dollars spent to bail out banks — and pay Wall Street bonuses.

Well, why shouldn’t they draw those comparisons?  Hasn’t the mainstream press furiously inked it onto the minds of its readers, capitalizing upon and reinforcing their economic illiteracy?

“We are outraged that the government, which has spent hundreds of billions of dollars to bail out financial institutions — and they in turn have given $18 billion as bonuses to their top executives — has no funds to support vital services for their senior citizens,” said Muriel Beach, New York City head of the State Wide Senior Action Council.

State Wide and other groups formed the “Senior Outrage Coalition” this month to mobilize protest among the city’s 1.3 million citizens aged 65 and over.

“We are of a generation that fought in the sixties,” she said. “We’re out there doing it again.”

Fought?  Fought what?  Fought business?  Fought markets?  Fought capitalism?  Where do you think the handouts you’re crying for come from?

The story writer here is reluctant to spill the beans.  Perhaps her editor forced her to.  Perhaps she said, “Listen Claudia, we have to at least give lip service to some other view about this situation.  You have to put it in there somewhere.”

So, after 23 paragraphs based on the premise of Wall Street bonuses being the reason that the public treasury has nothing left for poor old folks, the writer slips in these last words:

A formidable crowd despite walkers, canes and wheelchairs, many at the forum vented rage at lavish bonuses being paid on Wall Street.

Richard Gottfried, a state assemblyman, said while they might have been pleased to hear that six top executives at investment bank Goldman Sachs gave up their bonuses last year, the tax on their bonuses alone put $12 million into the state budget in 2007.

“I, like many of you, could do a lot with $12 million,” Gottfried said.

And that’s how it finished.