American Madness

Although this has not much - nothing at all, actually - to do with my life here in Namibia, I just had to show you the following:

Barack Obama demands that the average income of a banker can not be higher than $500,000 US dollars a year. Of course bankers complain, and most other people agree - especially after seeing the banks collapse. Now the banks come with a lot of arguments why this is unfair. They say for instance that if they pay their talents only a humble 500,000 a year, other international banks will buy them. Fair enough I would say, but a more shocking argument was made in the New York Times on the 6th of February:

The article Trying to Live on 500K in New York says the following:

With private school costing $32,000 a year; A mortgage on your $1,5milj dollar apartment costing $96,000 a year; Another $96,000 for maintenance; And a - yes its really in there - NANNY costing $45,000 a year. The bankers are already spending $269,000 a year without taxes and this doesn’t include a driver, a personal trainer etc.

To make the article even more ridiculous they say the following - and I quote:

“Sure, the solution may seem simple: move to Brooklyn or Hoboken, put the children in public schools and buy a MetroCard. But more than a few of the New York-based financial executives who would have their pay limited are men (and they are almost invariably men) whose identities are entwined with living a certain way in a certain neighborhood west of Third Avenue: a life of private schools, summer houses and charity galas that only a seven-figure income can stretch to cover.”

Please check this article out for yourselves & if you happen to be a banker in New York reading this, I would love to hear your view of things through the comments area.

More stories about my actual life in Namibia will follow this weekend.

Cheers Hidde

Tags: 500000, 500k, Bankers, New York, New York Times, Obama

Comments

jet stokvis Says:

February 11th, 2009 at 10:46 pm

Hoi Hidde,
Wat een belachelijk verhaal. Het kan niet waar zijn gewoon. Helemaal als je dat vergelijkt met wat er in Namibie uit te geven valt. Een voordeel van de crediet crisis is dat we allemaal weer eens afdalen naar de werkelijkheid, niet aldoor op vakantie, niet maar kopen en oud weggooien, maar schoenen worden weer eens verzoold en naden weer eens gestikt ipv nieuwe kopen. Ook doen mensen weer dingen metelkaar en ontdekken dat dat ook echt wel heel gezellig is. Geluk zit niet in nanny’s of appartementen, maar in heel andere zaken. Jullie (en zeker ook Anne, maar jij ook) hebben de kans dit nu te ervaren. Knoop het in je oren, het is een levensles die je nooit meer vergeet. Mijn mooiste ervaring was India, geen cent te makken, maar wel altijd delen en de mooiste gesprekken en mensen die ik ooit heb ontmoet.
Liefs en dikke kus,
Mamma

Ingi Says:

March 3rd, 2009 at 5:05 pm

Hi Hidde.
I stumbled up on your website and it is nice to read about Luderitz. I lived there from 98 - 06 and just wanted to ask you when are you guys planning to put the Buchter news on the web?
Cheers
INGI