Who would you choose: Wall Street fat cat or rubbish collector?

It's time to say something about spiritual investment. Several years ago, I started to do physical exercise in the garden near my apartment. After a certain period, I began to notice a thin strange man who was always walking around the garden looking for something. At first, I had no idea what he was really doing. Then, I saw him stopping at each rubbish bin and picking up articles like plastic bottles and tins. Finally, I learnt what his job was: he was picking up unused items such as plastic bags, plastic bottles, etc., for "sale." This is not exactly a rubbish collector but he was earning by picking rubbish!

At the beginning, I quite pitied him. He still looked 'young'; definitely not over 60 and was usually dressed properly in clean T-shirt and jeans. Not a guy that you would expect to be picking rubbish for a living. Later, I discovered that he was also picking rubbish in the district nearby and after some time, he started to use a cart or a wooden trolley to help him.

This story went back to 2002 at a time when the economy of Hong Kong was collapsing or melting like ice in a desert! One day when I was jogging, I saw the "collector" again. A sudden thought flashed in my mind. He was really hard-working and he was making an honest living, though a tough one. But whatever way you look at him, he was honestly using his own skill and labour to earn an honest living and this is precisely the point that made me feel a strong respect for this guy. Yes, respect.

Why should I be feeling respect for this guy? He appeared to be a person with high integrity and honesty in a world like Hong Kong where dishonesty and poor integrity is the general rule. He did not go to rob a bank; he did not cheat client's money like some brokers and lawyers; he did not steal; he did not lie, kill, or murder...Instead, he chose to work hard everyday by picking up unused articles from rubbish bins and then sold them for re-use, re-cycling, etc. Indeed, he was doing a special service to our society, namely, helping our environment by collecting plastic bags, bottles, etc., for re-use and re-cycling.

You know what I am going to say. On comparison, the fat cats in Wall Street are very ugly. The fat cats get fat checks, bonuses and stock options but look what have they done to the financial companies and our economy! The whole US housing and credit crises are part of their ingenious creation. And CDO, CCO, MBS, CSD, ... triple-A ***what else???? All of us suffer as a result. Shareholders lose their investments, employees lose their jobs, homeowners and mortgagors lose their assets and livelihoods, the Fed loses money to bail out their companies and the whole world loses owing to the slowdown of US economy and the falling stock market caused by such losses and crises! Each of us is paying for the losses whether directly or indirectly! But look at these fat cats in Wall Street; they lose nothing! The worst that can happen to them is exit with golden compensations! What a glorious and lucrative way to resign, retire or leave. Isn't this legitimate robbery of our global wealth? The crisis in US is paid by our global wealth and the creators in Wall Street are still so happy. Isn't this lawful robbery, theft or deprivation of global wealth? The US government is forced to inject unlimited money to bail out the failing financial companies and banks. China, Japan and other countries in Asia, the Middle-East, etc., that are holding US bonds and investments are directly or indirectly paying for the bailouts and the deficits caused or may be caused as a result.

While many in our materialistic world will pay high respects to and adore the fat cats in Wall Street, they fail to open their eyes to the ugly reality behind the surface. Big yachts, sports cars, huge castles, golf course, private jets, sky-high bonuses, ... the list can go on for many pages. You ignorant fools are the poor ones paying for these and those fat cats! One clever guy told me that the fat cats ought to get huge bonuses because they made a lot of money for their financial companies! How clever such comment is! The fat cats are not betting on their own money; they are using company and clients money to do the gambling; win or lose is not their concern. At the end, they are going to get their huge golden compensations any way. I will not give a fig and not to say respect to the fat cats!

If banks like HSBC would report poor results next week, the fat cats would still get huge compensations! You will lose your investments; employees may be laid off; depositors may lose their money when a bank fails... See the rubbish collector in the garden does not do anything to cause you any loss and what he has been doing is in fact a special service to our world particularly in terms of saving our environment. Who would you choose?