A surprising front page story in the Sunday Times revealed that Wall Streeters aren't actually suffering as much as we've been led to believe. Without getting into the nitty gritty details (which always seem to make people's eyes to glaze over and no longer care about these financial matters), it was spelled out right there in the second graf: "Workers at the largest financial institutions are on track to earn as much money this year as they did before the financial crisis began, because of the strong start of the year for bank profits." The article then summed it up in plainspeak: "If that pace continues all year, the money set aside for compensation suggests that workers at many banks will see their pay — much of it in bonuses — recover from the lows of last year."
OK. Did you read that? All those Wall Streeters who are feeling such righteous indignation, nay RAGE, as NYMag told us last week, but in reality they are going to all turn out fine, still lining their pockets (and going on their vacations). While many young New Yorkers are earning miserable amounts of money, the fat cats are profiting at taxpayers' expense. But let's go one step further: Haven't we been told that the City is facing billions in deficit. That it's so bad we need to re-elect our billionaire mayor so he can fix our woes? But if so much of our budget is based on the heavy taxes to our Wall Street brethren, and they are indeed going to earn as much as 2007, won't our deficit see a quick turnaround? Won't the MTA find all that money suddenly stashed under some mattress and no longer need to hike up our subway fare over 100 bucks?
Or maybe we're just not understanding the logic, the trickle-down, the way all these numbers get crunched. Because once we start down that path where we're told we have to hump along with the burden of the country, that it was OUR fault we got into this mess in the first place, we usually grow complacent, accept our responsibility and pay up... Oh, wait, it must be because no one is READING the NYTimes anymore. That's it. People forgot what the FRONT PAGE MEANS! Well, if you do decide to start reading news again, start here and then start cultivating your own indignation.
