What do you think of the Occupy Wall Street movement? Are you involved?
As I am in the UK, I am not involved with this, but we have our own protests based on similar principles : to make accountable those in the financial sectors who brought about the financial crisis, and the resultant recession which has spread throughout all of Europe - affecting all but the affluent!
What really bothers you about it?
I, and thousands of others, find it obscene that our government is still allowing bankers and other financial institutions to pay out colossal bonuses, when the man in the street, through no fault of his own, is struggling to pay bills, heat his house and put food on the table, to say nothing of the job losses this has caused.
As I am in the UK, I am not involved with this, but we have our own protests based on similar principles : to make accountable those in the financial sectors who brought about the financial crisis, and the resultant recession which has spread throughout all of Europe - affecting all but the affluent!
What really bothers you about it?
I, and thousands of others, find it obscene that our government is still allowing bankers and other financial institutions to pay out colossal bonuses, when the man in the street, through no fault of his own, is struggling to pay bills, heat his house and put food on the table, to say nothing of the job losses this has caused.
What happens if we do nothing? Why is this important?
The ramifications of allowing the banking industry to go unregulated has caused untold misery and financial hardship for many. Young people are finding it almost impossible to get a mortgage.(How many young people can afford to put down a deposit of twenty,thirty,forty thousand pounds. especially worse, for those graduates leaving uni with a large debt,already. What makes it particularly infuriating, is that the government, when bailing out the banks (with tax payers money) allocated a portion of this tax payers money to kick start the housing market. But what did the baks do. They used our money to pay off their own debts. And still the our government did nothing!
The ramifications of allowing the banking industry to go unregulated has caused untold misery and financial hardship for many. Young people are finding it almost impossible to get a mortgage.(How many young people can afford to put down a deposit of twenty,thirty,forty thousand pounds. especially worse, for those graduates leaving uni with a large debt,already. What makes it particularly infuriating, is that the government, when bailing out the banks (with tax payers money) allocated a portion of this tax payers money to kick start the housing market. But what did the baks do. They used our money to pay off their own debts. And still the our government did nothing!
That is why we have people occupying the steps of St Paul's cathedral in London and why the Robin Hood Tax was started.
Has the banking crisis affected you personally?
Yes, in that it took over three years to sell our house simply because prospective purchasers could not obtain a mortgage to buy it. (To say nothing of the money 'lost' in the devaluation of the price of the property)
Unfortunately, unless we put pressure on the government, they will fail to act because those at the top tend to look after their rich pals.The word 'cronyism' is banded about. With our conservative government, there are not many at the top of our leaders' board who are not millionaires. They have little concept of what a financial struggle it is for many in this country. I am sure it is the same all over Europe and the US.
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