Banker "salary caps" an empty gesture to recession victims

Do you know of anyone earning €500,000 per annum, plus bonuses, in these increasingly austere times? More than likely, you don"t - if you are among the greater part of society, making a comfortable but modest wage in a job which is by no means secure.But perhaps you do know a couple of millionaires. Given the profile of the Celtic Tiger era, this is likely to be your local builder, who made a fortune off the property boom; or the many tradesmen and women who serviced the construction industry, be they auctioneers, solicitors or architects.With the collapse of that industry, these overnight millionaires and construction company executives are on their knees. Once the recipients of handsome dividends, salaries and bonuses, the steam has now run out of their bricks and mortar-driven enterprise.Millionaires everywhere are now struggling to pay off colossal debts. Some of them were reckless, and became part of the overall problem; some of them were genuinely unlucky.But more importantly, there"s the hundreds of thousands currently occupying the dole queues - factory workers, labourers, craftsmen, administrative staff, all victims of the private sector cull which resulted from the credit freeze.These people, most of whom have mortgages and bills to pay, schoolbooks to buy, and debts to account for, will be in dire straits come 2010.As if things weren"t bad enough for people who have already lost everything, from April 7, they - and the rest of us - will be asked to tighten the belts even further.However, in the same week we hear that savage budget cuts are looming on the horizon - including more taxes and sacrifices for those most at risk from the recession - we hear about a proposed salary cap of €500,000 for banking executives.It"s an anomalous concept, when you consider that anyone tied up in the private sector faces catastrophe over the next few years, if this recession turns to depression - except, it seems, the banking sector.For most of us, the worst case scenario will result in a salary cap of (if we"re lucky) an average of €170 per week - the dole. If that scenario arises, we will feel pretty aggrieved, because we worked diligently and honestly to ensure the survival of our careers.And yet banking executives - many of whom have carried out their affairs dishonestly, and with scant regard for the national interest, other businesses and even their colleagues - will have to go through the 'humiliating' process of cutting their annual take home pay to a maximum of €500,000. Imagine!At a time when even the unemployed father of four is being asked by the Government"s champagne patriots to put his shoulder to the wheel in the national interest, it doesn"t take a maths genius to see the injustice in this equation.What"s most alarming is that this laughable bankers" 'salary cap' was suggested by none other than the Minister for Finance, Brian Lenihan.If this was a move to cool palpable public anger over the banking executives" talent for getting away with blue murder, then it really is an empty gesture.With a €500,000 annual salary, it would be very possible to pay two mortgages, look after a sizeable family, afford a couple of generous foreign holidays, and power a couple of hefty German-built cars.If college fees are reintroduced, then your kids would find their way safely into university, without the need for a Government grant. You could also set them up with some property, ensuring their future.While all of this sounds wonderful, it is in fact the stuff of nightmares, because it means that because of their high-level contacts and existing wealth, a minority will be safeguarded from the troubles of the coming years, driving a bigger wedge between the haves and have nots.They will be made recession-proof, even if they played a role in creating the criminal shambles that is Irish bankerdom. Again, as has happened so often in Ireland before, the unjust and reckless will be rewarded, and the less well-off pillaged and whipped.Ireland is on the verge of default thanks to the billions upon billions of taxpayers" money which has been poured into rescuing the private banking sector. We can only assume that some of this money will be used to pay these €500,000 per annum salaries - if they are ever capped at such.As businesses go to the wall without a bailout, and thousands head for the dole queues without rescue, one wonders why there is such an urgency to keep irresponsible banks afloat.Some would argue that the survival of these banks is a systemic necessity.In that case, there is a systemic crisis, which warrants a radical reappraisal of how business, politics and finance is conducted in this country.Will such a reappraisal happen, before it a financial meltdown becomes a political, social and economic collapse? Time alone will tell: but the clock is ticking.