The Exploitation of the Many by the Few

I noticed an article the other day.

Apparently, Goldman Sachs owns a major piece of Burger King.

The article basically made the point that if you took the total bonus pool of Goldman Sachs and extended it to all the Burger King employees, they each would have received an $18,000 bonus, which is in excess of the average BK salary of $14,000.

Significantly, Goldman Sachs took billions in federal bailout money and still gave out bonuses. Several years ago I remember reading that the average total compensation at Goldman Sachs -- including secretaries, administration, clerical -- was $600K. We can only imagine what people at the most senior levels got.

So here's my point: are we better off with the few making so, so much and the many struggling just to survive. Yes, of course, there are different levels of talent and it takes a lot more education and smarts to put together an M&A deal than flip burgers, but I have to question the over-exaggerated skew towards the very wealthy.

The Goldman Sachs bonuses, I'm sure, bought a lot of expensive Coops in Manhattan, McMansions in Fairfield County, Summer Homes in the Hamptons and Nantucket, yachts, exotic luxury cars and many things I can't even imagine.

Wouldn't the money have been put to better use by bringing those BK employees up from poverty levels to income levels which begin to border on adequate?