Observe the fatcat. Note its love for a government - until it’s expected to start pulling its considerable weight. Listen then to the futile screams of a plutocrat subjected to economic liposuction. Pathetic, no?

The Dutch government recently made the excellent point that it was difficult to ask the low paid to tighten their belts while the rich flounce about with bonuses equating to more than a year’s wages. In an economic recession, the low-paid always come off worst.  Everyone suffers a dip in income.

For the very wealthy, that means a little less extravagence.  For the middling, it means restraint and savings.  For the poor, it means actual hardship.  Wage cuts bite harder, as there’s less to cut in the first place.  Unemployment means a drop into actual poverty - lower wages mean less savings to keep you going.

The answer is, of course, welfare, as a safety net if nothing else. That needs paying for - and who’d be better paying for it?  The unemployed and low-paid who it’s meant to help can’t.  The super-rich, on the other hand, can, and will still be richer afterwards. So it doesn’t seem unreasonable to make them pay.

Unless they enjoy the angry, tired and ill worforce poverty would bring with it? JimJay at The Daily (Maybe) puts it succinctly:

Half a million Euro’s is currently 775,619 dollars or 398,190 pounds. That seems to be quite a lot of money in any one’s book and you’d have thought any bloated plutocrat with a bit of nous would welcome the chance to contribute towards keeping bobbies on the beat to protect their wealth and nurses at their stations to keep the workers working - but no.

Predictably, though, the plutocrats don’t think this way, and are dragging their feet.  In doing so, they come out with the most ludicrous excuses:

Shell’s chief executive Jeroen van der Veer said in a newspaper interview: “Either you have a headquarters and accept as part of the bargain that large numbers of people earn high salaries, or you don’t. I’ve noticed there is very little understanding for the needs of a large company. I find this disturbing.”

Excuse me? You find it disturbing that you’ll still be earning at least 350,000 euros (in bonuses) while low-paid workers have enough to get by?  Poor baby…

Perhaps the best way is to phrase it in the selfish terms that he clearly understands best.  A large company needs workers who are motivated, fit and well to function properly.  Those workers will not be motivated if they’re struggling to pay off a mortgage or the rents each week while their bosses live in sparkling mansions.  Those workers won’t be fit if the health service is underfunded.  Those workers won’t work well if they’re thinking about the next payment rather than the job at hand.

It’s in the interests of business to fund the state that supports the low paid - or pay them better wages.  Either is going to require them spending more money.

Worst of all, though, was this:

“We must watch out that we don’t go too far,” said Hans Wijers, chief executive of Akzo Nobel, one of the largest Dutch companies. “There are many senior managers who are working themselves to the bone and they’re not doing it to get super-rich.”

Could he have said anything more stupid?  If money isn’t the issue, then there’s little reason to complain.  They don’t want it, Wijers says - so why not use it for good…

I’d write more, but it’s leaning very close to a rant as it is.  Suffice to say; the Dutch government needs to put its foot down here.  If the unions dragged their feet so much against the public interest, these people would be calling for (elected) union leaders to be castrated.  Shouldn’t we do the same when the plutocrats get in the way?