The Dead Bankers and the ATS Cheering Section

reply to post by beezzer


I think if most people realized what goes into running a business they wouldn't hate people for working their asses off and providing jobs for others.

Granted, I have never met Bill Gates, who btw gives a LOT to various AIDS foundations and research... but I have sat in the living room of Mr. Block, and Barnett Helzsberg Jr.

Helzberg was started by a Russian immigrant, and taken over by his 14 year old son Barnett Sr. when he died. The Helzbergs are very kind and good people... wealthy, but it was earned, every penny.

This whole, I hate wealthy people thing... is ridiculous. Wealthy simply have a lot more drive... it was a drive I decided for myself that I didn't care for because of what I would have had to give up to obtain it, but not everyone makes the same decisions, and we are not all the same.

Am I angry with Barnett for having more money? NO. Did I think he had a cool house? yep.... lol

As you said, if we don't stand up and put a stop to things, it could be anyone next. It's a witch hunt for the wealthy.

reply to post by OpinionatedB


You know, I am so glad they have a defender in you. Now tell my friends who lost most their 401k's for retirement in the '08 crash to feel sorry for them. And no, they did not recover what they lost. It is a total myth that you recover lost money. Lost money is gone forever to someone else.

reply to post by OpinionatedB


I admire people who have more. I've gone to nice apartments, huge houses, awesome landscaped yards, and I have been amazed.

Never angry.

People work. We all do and live at a level where many of us are happy and satisfied.

I'll never need a mansion. A few acres next to a lake, and I'm set! (working on that now!)

A modest home. Something for my family. But it'll be something I work for.

I won't take it from someone.
I won't blame someone if it takes longer to obtain.

I see a very disturbing trend. Kudos for you for bringing it to light!

reply to post by MOMof3


The measure of a person is not how he/she falls.

It is how they pick themselves up.

reply to post by MOMof3


I said before my daughter lost money, to the tune of 75,000 dollars of her trust fund.

It happens. 401k's are investing in the stock market, AND you Don't have to, you can, should you have a mind, do something different with your retirement. The stock market is NOT a sure thing, and we learned this back in the 20's and 30's.

If your retirement through work is a 401k, and you want a different type of retirement account, then you discuss your benefit package when you get hired... if they are unwilling to give you what you ask, then you have the right to get a different job.

Getting stocks as your retirement, or getting into a group fund that plays the stock market, can go either way. If you don't want to risk your retirement, then don't get stocks and/or stay the hell out of the market!

I will now reiterate an earlier post:
www.abovetopsecret.com...

beezzer
reply to post by MOMof3

 

The measure of a person is not how he/she falls.

It is how they pick themselves up.

Beezz: truer words were never spoken..

OpinionatedB
There are now 6 dead bankers, and I am utterly and completely shocked that some people on ATS are actually cheering these mens' deaths.

I cheer ANY misfortune to ANY bank employer or employee. Boss, cashier or cleaner....all cogs in the wheels imo.

I'm not sorry to say this and the whole industry is a giant criminal cartel and anyone who joins it has no sympathy here as they support the whole organisation.

Some may knee jerk reactions about people needing jobs to feed families or not deserving my ill wishes etc but for every bank employee there must be many many others who have suffered from the parasitic nature and utter control of banking activities.

reply to post by nerbot


Why not fast food workers? They give the nation crap food...

Why not clothing stores? God knows this takes advantage of chinese people.

And while we are at it why not have hatred for every single orange grove owner and worker... they take advantage of mexicans and pay low wages.

Oh, and lets not forget the auto manufacturers and workers who steadily work toward destroying the envirornment, should we hate them and kill them off?

My God if we don't approve of a particular field, we should not partake in that field. I am against alcohol, so I don't do anything to support those businesses who supply alcohol and make alcohol. But guess what, I don't hate anyone for their views on it, I simply don't share the same views therefore my hard-earned money doesn't support it.

I am not ready to kill everyone involved in the alcohol industry, thats insanity.

How about a new motto, deny ignorance, and encourage sanity!

reply to post by vkey08


In the military we had a saying.

(one of many)

"Pain is weakness leaving the body."

Life is all abut fighting and overcoming odds.

Or

I suppose you could just wait for your trophy, 'cause everyone should get one.

beezzer
reply to post by LightSpeedDriver

 

It all comes down to "who cares."

Who cares what someone has.

I don't care that many here on ATS are younger and wealthier than myself.

I applaud that!

I spent most of my adult life in the military. I didn't "bank" much. At all.

But through the training and education and my own motivation, I'm in a civilian position that does pay well.

Should I now be punished because I worked my ass off to get where I am?

Reasonable people will say, "Of course not!".

But when the torches and pitchforks come calling, they aren't going to be looking at individual achievement.

They'll be looking for anyone "who has more".

edit on 17-2-2014 by beezzer because: k

Normally I wouldn't quote a whole post like this, but this deserves repeating. This I agree with Beez. I hold nothing against anyone who has an abundance of wealth. I'm happy for them, and am working to reach a modicum of that myself someday. But, in my personal opinion, we aren't talking about honest, hardworking people. We are talking about those who have more in common with gangsters and grifters, than they do with the working man.

Nevertheless, I agree that when the torches and pitchforks come out, discernment will go out the window, and good people will be harmed. Lynch mobs aren't the answer.

reply to post by Klassified


When there was mob activity we go after the mobsters, and when the government wont do it, we need to create an air where the government will start doing what WE hired them to.

But murder and witch hunts are never the answer... this is why we have laws and say justice is blind and allow the guilty to speak and show evidence and have punishments to fit crimes.

reply to post by vkey08


Tell your knees and hip joints that at 61 and you just lost half of your retirement. Most of the people I know, the only retirement plan offered in the 80's and 90's at most businesses was 401k's. Snake Oil sales.

My husband's International Trade Union Local 238 was one of the exceptions. We did not lose any of our retirement in the crash of 08.

reply to post by MOMof3


Look, if you cannot afford to pay the piper you don't play the game. Snake oil sales is right, and if people fell for it hook line and sinker even after being within a generation of the great depression then "Here's Your Sign."

You don't kill the owner of the casino or the workers in said casino if the gambler decided to risk it all, and walked out with nothing. No matter how old that gambler is....

Life isn't a pity party.... you do what you do and you pay for the choices you make, good or bad...just be careful not to make too many choices in ignorance, because when you do, you have only yourself to blame.

OpinionatedB
reply to post by nerbot

 

Why not fast food workers? They give the nation crap food...

But the majority of fast food workers move on and don't make careers out of it.

Why not clothing stores? God knows this takes advantage of chinese people.

Eliminate the banks credit cards and stop the spending.

And while we are at it why not have hatred for every single orange grove owner and worker... they take advantage of mexicans and pay low wages.

Owners are the greedy ones perhaps, the workers not so. Maybe you said that wrong eh?

Oh, and lets not forget the auto manufacturers and workers who steadily work toward destroying the envirornment, should we hate them and kill them off?

We have enough cars, I wish they'd just stop.

My God if we don't approve of a particular field, we should not partake in that field. I am against alcohol, so I don't do anything to support those businesses who supply alcohol and make alcohol. But guess what, I don't hate anyone for their views on it, I simply don't share the same views therefore my hard-earned money doesn't support it.

I am not ready to kill everyone involved in the alcohol industry, thats insanity.

I am not saying you or I should kill anyone but your passive approach acheives absolutely nothing and shows weakness towards the things in our world that need attitude to change.

The root of all evil needs a wake up call.

MOMof3
reply to post by vkey08

 

Tell your knees and hip joints that at 61 and you just lost half of your retirement. Most of the people I know, the only retirement plan offered in the 80's and 90's at most businesses was 401k's. Snake Oil sales.

My husband's International Trade Union Local 238 was one of the exceptions. We did not lose any of our retirement in the crash of 08.

unfortunately, as Beezer can tell you, my health is not great currently (he's seen me rant about the lack of doctors in my state) I have zero retirement to speak of, two disabled girls that eat through money like it's water, and picked myself up from being homeless and on welfare for a short time after my husband died, I know all about the broke penniless feeling.

That being said, no matter how awful someone's job seems to be to us, wishing them dead is never a good thing.

Pedophiles, murderers, rapists, that's another story, but a person working at a bank? Wishing tellers dead? ( I saw someone allude to that on here) There comes a time when the anger and the hate needs to stop, and solutions need to be had, this is one of those times. I would never wish death on anyone that within our economic system made money for themselves by using that system. Yes it's underhanded, and yes they probably deserve some sort of jail time/sanctions for it, but not death.

I'm also still waiting for my fellow Czar to acknowledge my post to her

reply to post by OpinionatedB


Really? Have you made it to retirement yet with more money than you had when you worked your arse off? Have you sent three kids to college? Have you gone broke twice, homeless, and still landed on top? I don't need advice.

reply to post by MOMof3


You know, my ex husband beat me so bad and so often that I am 75 % deaf in one ear and 90% deaf in the other, and my back and legs will never be right again.

What's funny, is I don't blame him so much, I forgave him long ago because of 1 reason. I allowed it, I made the choices and I allowed what I allowed.....

was just as much my fault, because I stayed...

What I find in life, is that people are never willing to look within for the reasons or the answers. They always want to look outside for the place to lay blame when usually, it is at least as much within as it is without. Perhaps moreso.

This whole "kill all the bankers"... is about placing blame anywhere but home.

reply to post by beezzer

I respectfully disagree and also think you missed my point. Perhaps my words were not clear.

I don't think any reasonable person would have a problem with any individual who, through their own hard work, ideas or just a cunning plan, set out to bring to market a product or service that was useful and/or in demand. However, and this is my point re-iterated:

If you are born into wealth, success or a combination of both then you have a distinct and quite unfair advantage to the average Joe who only get's one shot of the rifle. To use my examples of Gates and Trump, while they are both successful businessmen, the means with which they achieved (much, if not all of) that are at best questionable and more (probably) realistically, probably illegal or at least extremely questionable.

If this is how you (and a large part of the unwashed masses also) are taught to measure success then I think our opposing views will never be reconciled but I would pose you just a single question.

Is success to be measured in dollars and cents (while paying heed to the manner in which that is achieved, cartels, the Old Boy network, political and financial heavy-weight friends who all form a nice tidy line behind you) or, should we take a more humanistic view and look at what a person did for society or the quality of life of his fellow human beings?

To be clear, when you work hard for what you believe in and achieve success, I, and I suspect/hope the majority of ATS members would applaud that. However, when you use your wealth, power, connections etc to prevent another from enjoying the same success as you have managed to find, then I think I would posit that you deserve nothing of which you have. Just my 2 cents, an humble opinion, and a little humanism.

PS When pitchforks and lanterns abound, I think your piddling million dollars will not put you in the "them" camp. (As opposed to the "us" camp") A million dollars would then probably not be worth the wheelbarrow you may need to carry that much cash around in. Hyperinflation is a great equaliser. Not to mention pitchfork wielding zombie apocalypses.

reply to post by OpinionatedB


Oh please. Do you think you are the only woman to be abused by someone you thought loved you? So that excuses bankers for deliberately bilking the taxpayers and retirees? Send you abusive husband their way.

reply to post by LightSpeedDriver


Gates started with 25,000, a college degree, and a father in business who had connections Gates could use.

My daughter started out with much much more... and gained less in her life, as short as it was... because she had no ambition outside of being a wife and mother.

What my daughter started out with was due to the sweat off my back, so she could have a better start in life. Just because Gates father wanted the same good start in his son's life, and worked a good portion of his life for that end, is no reason to hate Gates for his success.