BIG BUSINESS

I have no quarrel at all with business and I have no quarrel at all with profit. I do, however, have a quarrel with most profit margins!

Years ago...(yes, back in the day!)...business people were obliged to work with a profit margin of 33.3%. Then some bright spark decided to throw the designated profit margin to the wind...and that's when it all started to go pear-shaped.

You put the arbitrary acquisition of money into the mix and greed rears its ugly head. And greed, for its own sake, respects nothing. These days the race for huge profits is almost obscene. At least, I find it so. It's no longer a case of running a business and making a living, it's running a business and making a killing!

And the problem is top-down. Top, in this case, being government. And that's any party. A close second comes the banks, though I'm not certain who runs who. (I think there should be a "whom" in there somewhere!)

I have a nasty feeling that government policy could be dictated by the money moguls, and maybe it's been that way all along. Either way, someone has turned the race for profit into an Olympic sport!

And as for "self regulation"...well, someone tell me where that has actually worked!

The big - and the highly personal - question is...how many of us would actually do it differently? After all, if it's possible to make £100 profit from a particular transaction, would we arbitrarily limit that profit to, say, £50? Just for the sake of it? I severely doubt it. And, if I'm right, we're doomed at the starting line!

BANK BONUSES

These people make my ***** go tight!

The numbers attached to the bonuses alone are bigger than most people gross in a year!

Then again, can you really blame them? If we, the public, sit still for it, they're going to keep on awarding themselves these telephone numbers! Ask yourself if you would do it any differently. The Gravy Train, who wouldn't like to board it, given the opportunity!

These millionaires/billionaires are where they are because we allow them to be there!