February 17, 2009

Goldman Sachs Screws Its Burger King Employees

What would you do with an extra $18,000 in your pocket?

That's the amount of extra cash each and every Burger King employee in America would have received last year if Goldman Sachs (one of the fast-food chain's largest owners) had shared its bailout billions with rank-and-file workers. Instead, Goldman Sachs squandered 6.5 billion of our taxpayer dollars on bonuses for their financial staff. These were some of the highest bonuses on Wall Street! Meanwhile, Burger King workers earn wages averaging just $14,000 a year -- well below the federal poverty line for a family of three.

The folks at Brave New Films created this video to demonstrate the harmful effects of Wall Street's greed:





I must admit that I didn't remember Goldman Sachs purchasing Burger King. I never thought of the Burger King employees when the initial Wall Street bailout discussions were taking place. This is a compelling story of greed on Wall Street overwhelming compassion for the workers on Main Street.

What do you think about this issue?

9 comments:

Connecticut Man1 said...

$210,000.00 average bonus. For complete and total failures. Many of them criminals or criminally negligent in their business dealings.

Claw it all back and nationalize the failed and corrupt banks. Break them into little pieces so they can never agian be "too big (or corrupt) to fail."

SjP said...

I suspect we'll be hearing about more bail-out screw ups in the coming weeks, months, years, decades, centuries.....

Unknown said...

This gives a whole new meaning to supersize and just like the meal it leaves you with a lot of extra fat and unnecessary calories. If I ate fast food this would make me stop and tip those workers. This is crazy!

Karen

Webmaster said...

Pity that Obama got most of his money from Goldman Sachs. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss!

clnmike said...

Cold blooded.

Unknown said...

Ct-Man - I agree with you that our economic crisis won't be over until we can fix the failures of the big banks. I hope that Obama's economic team is up to that challenge...

Sojourner and Mike - We call it a bailout now. They will be saying, "it's the reason that Daddy went to jail" later...

Karen - I've never thought to tip anyone at a fast food place before. I guess the fact that I've never worked at one makes me under-appreciate what they do...

Webmaster - Can you clarify what you mean by Obama getting money from Goldman Sachs?

The Urban Scientist said...

For all the talk of good jobs and creating jobs, what concerns me is the fact that so many new industries or companies offer jobs but poor wages. They pay people just enough so that they aren't breaking the law. The idea of offering a LIVING wage or letting people work full time or offering benefits seems to be a no-no. You work and work and still have to live with your mom in order to make it, cause you only make 10-12K a yr.

Meanwhile, big execs make BIG money and never get greasy.

Unknown said...

Urban Scientist - Do you know off-hand what a livable wage is nowadays?

Segarot said...

Look, I hate when people are worried about other peoples money. Worry about acquiring your own wealth.
Flipping burgers and wrapping a sandwich is not the same as investing High Net Worth individuals wealth and getting paid off performance.

Calling All Financiers Criminals and Thieves is an ignorant statement. People just see the face value of things and refuse to understand the complexity in making money. These banks and financial powerhouses wouldn't pay so much money to a Junior Financier if he wasn't making the company money.

Stop complaining and start understanding. If you are unhappy with the amount your making now, find a different career path.

I myself am a student at a Business College. I grew up with NOTHING. With hard work in trying to understand a system, I am now about to work for Goldman.

They didn't go to the ivy leagues to find me. They went into a respectable Business City College in NY to recruit me.

Making a few hundred grand is easy.
Those who deny wealth wont acquire it, those who deny healthy will stay unhealthy, those who strive for success will achieve it.
-MTV