Paying back a loan early is normally seen as a good thing. It says you are a responsible person and look to make good on your debt quickly. However that motivation for banks to pay back the government bailout money early has other motives. Once you connect all the dots you may suddenly see another picture.
So for the average Joe who takes a personal loan from the bank, paying it back early sets you high up in they eyes of the community. You become a person of your word and well respected by others.
Now looking at the huge bailout US banks got from the government and ultimately the tax payers, that bailout loan came with strings or in this case ropes attached. One of those ropes was limiting huge salaries, and one guess who did not like that.
So being more than a bit greedy and seemingly not caring to much about the minions who’s tax money that bailed them out, the goal was to cut that rope as fast as possible. The minions noted that in their very next credit card statement where the interest rate had gone from tolerable to absurd with one executive signature on an internal document.
Now it does not take too much to see that this behavior by the banks is what contributed to general anger before the economic crash with huge salaries and golden parachutes. Also it has been cited as being related to the crash with get rich quick schemes by Wall Street and other such groups that deal with money for a living.
In short, they don’t care and based on what is seen, they do not look to change their ways. There is a very clear us/them mentality present. If Connecting the Dots had a category named ‘And you wonder why they came back with guns’ or ‘Going Postal’, this would fit well. No doubt there are some people just building up steam to have some target practice with some of these greedy CEO types who have seemingly apparently lost touch with what it is like to be human, and are genuinely hurting people for their own personal financial gain.
It’s not about Greed
There are between 7 and 14 articles and blogs a day all identifying the crisis of 2008, CEO behavior and bankers bonuses as all about greed. We are quickly moving towards an accusatory cultural position that if one gets too much (a relative term) then one is filled with greed. It is similar to the diagnosis of narcissism that has been grossly misused and misapplied. Misused to the degree, where if one is selfish or lacks empathy or takes more, one is called a narcissist. This places the accuser in the position of blaming those who have more and fails to understand what motivates them to engage in this behavior.
What brought about the banking crisis in America was not about greed, it was about the pathological need to increase one’s status. Studies have demonstrated that high levels of testosterone do not necessarily lead to a macho man hell bent on being aggressively consumptive but a man excessively focused on status, filled with envy, and an overwhelming desire to have what the other guy has. Consider this: At a “gin and tonic” party at a mansion of a successful banker an attendee reported the following. “After I got my drink our host led us to his greenhouse and showed his magnificent collection of valuable and delicate orchids. It was his hobby and he would travel the world collecting rare and exotic plants. Upon return to the house I could not help but notice two sets of women; an old or original group of wives at one end of the large room and a group of trophy wives at the other end, nervously eyeing each other.” What drives these men to engage in one-upmanship is not greed — but one-up-man ship status. They see their colleagues with a more expensive car, they start thinking about getting a one, they see a colleague with a jet and they have to have one too, they see a colleague with a beauty and they want one. Houses, cars, wives, art, orchids, watches, office, etc.; these are status symbols and for these men they are exceedingly important. They become a measure of their self worth. The parties, the country club, the university club, the yacht club, and the workplace are all places where executives parade their stuff. Many suggest this is nothing more than narcissistic characters impressing others to obtain love. But this may not be the case. They live and work within a culture that is status driven and issues of exclusion and inclusion are associated with the attainment of status. In this culture those who have more create envy and they aggressively engage in the struggle for ever higher status. The “my d–k is bigger than yours,” is ever present. The truth of the matter is underneath they believe they will always an inadequate d–k.