Originally Posted by bernardd

I think you'd still find it hard to explain 50% of median national income, and presumably 50% of individual income for many retail bank employees, as "very little" to the average bus driver, car worker, civil servant etc etc. who is having to foot the bill.

No, sorry, the entire Financial Services sector has an exaggerated position in society. Amongst other things it's forgotten that it's playing with other peoples savings, pocketing a lot in the good times but apparently unwilling to carry any of the can in the bad.

You can certainly pile a lot of the responsibility on politicians for not having recognized it was going to end badly.

One thing that distresses me is the rise of the media-obsessed career politician. The general populace has the power to toss them out periodically, though it seems to prefer spin over substance. Of course all the time the money is flowing, your house is 'earning' more than your regular job, your buy-to-let is a license to print money, you're getting multiple foreign holidays a year etc etc., why would you want to rock the boat? If you had any money saved, why should you only be earning a couple of percent? No, pick another Bank - one that gives you 10%, or better still, blow the lot and run up some more credit card debt because what does it matter - the house will cover it. On top of all this, the politicians want to get re-elected so they want us to feel wealthy and have no incentive to tell you the economy is out of control until it hits the buffers.

IMO it's all too easy to point at fat cat Bankers, or politicians or any other single group. We're all complicit.