"Fucking Parasites"?
Sorry, but people are happy enough to borrow money for their houses and their cars and their widescreen tv's because "it's their right" to have these things when they can't afford them. God forbid they should have to live within their means. This "everything is black and white Daily Fail scape-goating" is rather tedious.
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JamTallons, Tue 20 Jul 2010, 11:13,
Reply)
The banking sector is not entirely blameless
What was the American bank who got fined last week for telling its clients to invest heavily one way, knowing it was a shit move, then betting the other way and making a huge profit?
For years I've said banking is just the respectable side of gambling.
I don't think it's even respectable anymore
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Joe Scaramanga with a G-double-O-D vibration, Tue 20 Jul 2010, 11:29,
Reply)
Nevertheless...
... I'm amazed by the number of people who seem not to have realised that the primary function of a bank is exactly the same as the primary function of any other business - to make a profit.
This genuinely seems to have come as a revelation to many.
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Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Tue 20 Jul 2010, 11:31,
Reply)
Thats because most people dont care
The majority of people see banks as a business, so get pissed off when they see tax payers money used to help them out.
It would take weeks to explain to these people WHY we gave them the money
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Joe Scaramanga with a G-double-O-D vibration, Tue 20 Jul 2010, 11:45,
Reply)
The banks...
...which made a profit aren't necessarily the problem in this case. The ones that failed, received huge public cash bailouts, then continued in exactly the same failing business practices as before? They're a problem.
(, Tue 20 Jul 2010, 11:49, Reply)
All the same
If you're accepting of a broadly liberal, broadly capitalist model of political economy, you're going to have to bite the bullet every now and again.
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Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Tue 20 Jul 2010, 12:04,
Reply)
and not get all "morally outraged" and hypocritical if you couldn't give a shit when times were good,
and your house was worth 50 billion-squillion poundrals.
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JamTallons, Tue 20 Jul 2010, 12:18,
Reply)
That was Goldman Sachs
and they are well known for being utter utter cunts. first time they've been caught with their hand in the till and everyone else in the city was ecstatic about it.
(, Tue 20 Jul 2010, 11:52, Reply)
The banks provide many valuable public services
but there are a lot of activities in the wider financial sector which serve no purpose other than to make money for very rich men. So yeah, I'd agree with the term parasites.
(, Tue 20 Jul 2010, 11:36, Reply)
And the problem with making money is what, exactly?
Christ: I can't believe that an unrepentant Marxist like me is offering defences like this.
But then again, possibly I can. Marxism isn't a moral theory; it's a historical and economic set of theories. There's no morality in it. So... yeah. Ummmmm... Crisis of capitalism, anyone?
That's what Marx got wrong: he thought that crises were fatal, when clearly they aren't.
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Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Tue 20 Jul 2010, 11:49,
Reply)
if you're selling a good or service, there's nothing wrong with making money.
(, Tue 20 Jul 2010, 12:03, Reply)