News that the pay of the chief executive of International Airlines Group
"increased fivefold last year" despite it coinciding with "swingeing pay cuts
for pilots and crew at Iberia", is not surprising, but does beg an important
question: Why is it that a business model, which led almost single-handledly to
the biggest financial crisis since the Wall Street Crash, is not only being
allowed to continue with little or no regulation, but also is the one which is
being foisted on previously untarnished corporations and institutions?
Banking`s reputation is deservedly at an all
time low: profit at all costs the prime motive, scams devised to trick customers
and rig interest and exchange rates, highest pay to those employed in the least
socially valuable aspect of the business, with obscene bonuses and payment
their reward, lowest pay possible to those responsible for the daily running of
the company and scant regard paid to trade unions and workers` rights, increased
"efficiency" equating to thousands of job cuts, and, of course, maximum effort
utilised to ensure as little of the profit goes to the government in the form of
taxation. Such "irresponsible capitalism" may lead to many declarations by CEOs
intent on transforming the culture, but "ethics" remain way behind profits in
the pecking order, even lower than customer satisfaction. Indeed, one such
practitioner of bad practice has been forced to admit, if its recent advertising
campaign is evidence to judge it by, that its role as football league sponsor is
more likely to win new customers rather than its damaged reputation as custodian
of savings. Despite such practices of "predator capitalism", the public is
constantly, and has been since the 2010 election, inundated with
propaganda about "private" being superior to "public", and that this business
model is the one to follow!
Until relatively recently, there were
publicly-run institutions in this country which engendered mass support. The
opening ceremony of the Olympics revealed the huge admiration felt for the NHS,
yet since then, constant efforts by the government and media to undermine our
confidence in a state owned health service have led to tacit acceptance of
top-down reforms and privatisation of key services.
State education, whilst imperfect in many
ways, was enjoying examination success, with results in many schools even
rivalling, sometimes surpassing, those of the private sector; universities were
accessible to pupils from all levels of society, because the A-level
examinations were structured, with coursework, modules and
resit availability, all designed to maximise potential and opportunity.Yet
changes came, not only with widespread assessment "reforms", but also with
the organisation of schools mirroring "big business" of all things, with pay for
the headteacher four or five times the level awarded for classroom expertise,
union rights and pensions reduced, and the totally inappropriate Performance
Related Pay mooted for state education. At university level, more of the failed
banking business model; even in times of government enforced austerity,
vice-chancellors receive massive boosts to pay, whilst their institutions`
student intakes are falling, lecturers` rates frozen, and student fees trebled
and soon to be "uncapped", to rise above the £9000 limit. Yet the people whose
work ensures university life continues as normal, the cleaners,cooks and
such-like, are exploited to such an extent, industrial action is often their
only option.
Even the BBC, once the world leader in
television and radio programming, lauded for its outside broadcasts and
universally acclaimed for its creativity, is now
subjected to similar business methods, cost-cutting whilst simultaneously
over-paying at the top, over-generous golden handshakes, muddled management
structures, and largely unimaginative in its output.
Yet all this is tolerated; standards fall
whilst neo-criminal activities by the financial institutions go largely
unpunished, and gradually the profit-at-all-costs brigade set the standard
others in all walks of life are expected to follow. The results are inevitably
increases in inequality, a decline in the quality of life for the average
worker, and deterioration in welfare services, as tax avoidance increases, and
still the business model continues to be followed!
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