Are most people just mindless robots?

[flobadob]

RBS made a loss of £2,000,000,000 last year. For this wonderful display they paid themselves £400,000,000 in bonuses. If these bonuses were not paid it would drop the loss by 20% by my reckoning. Why does society let these people get away with this. Have we all become mindless robots who are programmed to accept anything that happens so long as it doesn't involve us specifically?

[Old_Geezer]

Define mind. If we are the product on the wetware inside our heads then maybe yes, we are all robots of a sort and simply don't realise it :-)

I think folk can not afford to make their lives miserable by taking on the worries of everything that is wrong in the world. Occasionally we rise up and complain but one can not stay ranting for ever, especially against something you have no control over. You rely on the powerful to do the right thing for all our sakes.

[nannybooby]

I am so angry about the bonus paid to these people ,they get a better than average wage and still take more ,its not like they made a profit .
Lets say you overspend one month annd goa £1k overdrawn , next month you get the overdraft down to £500 so you reward yourself with a weekend away that costs £600 - its the same *loody principle. Crazy and they get away with it thanks to Blair and Brown who wrote the rule book.

[sasskins]

Yes.

[jackthehat]

The much vilified 'tent-city' in London was there specifically to highlight such iniquities.

We are unable to influence these decisions as they are 'business' decisions and as we cannot march into any other business and demand that their pay/bonus structure must conform to ethical guidelines....we can't do it here, either.

[Canary42]

Yes

[Baldric]

Maybe we should take a leaf out of the French National Handbook (although it pains me to say it), at least if they feel aggrieved over something and stand up to be counted en masse.

[jake-the-peg]

Unfortunately RBS are an organisation and not an individual or group of them.

I don't think those running it now are those responsible for the mess.

Penalising them is like blaming the road cleaners for making the mess.

If you ban all bonuses until they're back inthe black the staff would just leave - or at least the good ones who can get jobs elsewhere would.

The bank would then fail and we'd loose even more money.

Frustrating - Especially with Fred Goodwin living the high life in the South of France but that's what "light touch regulation" gets you.

Is Cameron still saying there's too much regulation in the Cof London or has he shut up on that now?

[dzug2]

Cameron came to power with a vague policy of sweeping away regulation of all sorts

These days there are increasing sound bites from him about regulating this and that

I only half listen these days

[ludwig]

// Unfortunately RBS are an organisation and not an individual or group of them. //

Sorry jake, but it is precisely because it is a group of individuals, or at least individual business functions, that bonuses are being paid.

There are people in the organisation who deserve a bonus. The ones who've put in a massive effort and earned a big amount for the business - thus helping to keep the losses down to only 2 billion.

It's tough to say to those people that because the business as a whole lost money that they don't deserve anything. These are the people that would leave as you say.

[giveup]

Yes

[boxtops]

"most people" wouldn't know anything about these bonuses if it weren't so high in media reporting now.