More News About CEOs Decrying Income Inequality

Just a day after I do a post on capitalism and the dangers of its “bad behavior”, this article comes out describing rich men calling for changes, including higher taxes on the wealthy. It was nice to see them call out for changes to rectify the current inequities. Jamie Dimon was one of the billionaires listed in the article.

He had previously been calling for changes in the education system to broaden the skill sets and increase access to better education. I believe he and JP Morgan had committed some money towards the improvement of education and its access for the disadvantaged.

So calling out for higher taxes for the wealthy was another notch on the “good” side.

(As an aside, higher taxes should also be imposed on big corporations, not just the wealthy, so as to close off hiding income/earnings/wealth within corporations.)

But then he goes and does this: Jamie Dimon talks up a bond sale of Saudi Aramco, an oil company with close ties to the Saudi government headed by MBS (crown prince Mohammed bin Salman), who is under suspicion of being involved in the horrendous murder of Jamal Khashoggi in the Turkish consulate. And the investors can’t get enough of the bonds.

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A Story About Aramco

I used to work for a company that had an office in the Aramco building. Our company leased one or two floors from Aramco. One morning I arrived and found that I had to put my bags and belongings on a conveyor belt for screening, much like at an airport, and I had to pass through detectors, again like at an airport. I thought that was odd and wondered if Aramco was being threatened.

This was about a week to a month before 9/11.

Suspicious, no? It is hard not to have conspiracy ideas surrounding the timing of the detectors and the fact that the majority of the hijackers were Saudis. I can’t help feel somebody high up at Aramco knew something big was going to happen which necessitated the installation of security detectors.

I just can’t help wondering.

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So couple of notches under the “bad” column for Jamie Dimon for leading that bond sale. This is so disappointing.

And instead of railing against the form of capitalism we currently have, stop kowtowing to the nameless, faceless shareholders and raise your employees’ salaries. Do something real instead of evincing fake platitudes.