Hedge fund managers and our values

Les Leopold, in a recent article on AlterNet, asks the question: What work do we value most?

Here's part of his answer:

"In 2009, the worst economic year for working people since the Great Depression, the top 25 hedge fund managers walked off with an average of $1 billion each. With the money those 25 people 'earned,' we could have hired 658,000 entry level teachers (they make about $38,000 a year, including benefits.) Those educators could have brought along 13 million young people, assuming a class size of 20. That's some value."

As one who labored in the educational profession for some years, it is no surprise that education, while highly touted by the politicos and other "leaders," is very low on their list of priorities. In fact, when push comes to shove financially, education and teachers generally get hit first! Currently in the State of Florida, a bill is progressing through the legislature which will effectively decimate the salaries of teachers. Some of the best of the latter are threatening to leave the profession as they cannot afford to take a 25-30% salary cut.

A huge problem, in my opinion, is that those working in the financial industry contribute nothing to society - they create nothing, they provide nothing; they serve no one except the well-to-do.

Hedge fund managers, according to Leopold, "run funds into which very rich people put money to make even more money. Hedge fund managers move the money around in very risky ways to get the most enormous yields possible ...

"Because hedge funds are considered playthings for the rich, who presumably are fully aware of all the risks, they are exempt from most financial regulations..."

Leopold is correct when he says "our economic system isn't rewarding real value. While the hedge fund 25 are living large, teachers everywhere are getting the axe. Why the layoffs? Because state and local governments are collecting enough taxes -- not since Wall Street investors crashed the economy."

It's the same old story: the rich get richer because the Republicans have deregulated the financial industry and drastically cut the tax rates of the rich. "In the 1970s," says Leopold, "the marginal rate on those with incomes above $3 million (in today's dollars) was 70 percent. Today, the effective rate on the 400 richest Americans is 16 percent, according to the most recent IRS data."

Another dramatic symbol of what's wrong with the system is the fact that ExxonMobil paid NO income taxes last year on taxable income of over $15 billion! Well, ExxonMobil claims it did pay income taxes, but somehow can't divulge just how much. Read more here.

Is this a great country, or what?


There's much more and you can read the entire article here.