Bollocks. Absolute bollocks.
The overwhelming number of shares in the UK are held by pension funds and insurance companies. The 'fat cat' shareholders are a tiny and irrelevant minority.
If shareholder benefits are seen as an easy target, pensions get cut. Simple as that.
( da5id <YOUR SIG HERE>, Fri 26 Apr 2013, 18:13, 3 replies)

And the financial organisations that run pension schemes and insurance are absolutely famous for living in penury and never awarding themselves absurd bonuses.

( Dr. Shambolic je suis charlie, Fri 26 Apr 2013, 18:15, closed)

Indeed. But the headline grabbing 'fat cats' are financially an irrelevance.
The problem is the system that allowed cheap unsecured loans to people who couldn't afford the repayments, then created a financial instrument to allow selling on the liability as a healthy-looking package, with an extra percentage at each trade. The regulatory changes to allow these instruments were the travesty, not the likes of Fred Goodwin who were really nothing but bookies getting millions whether they won or lost.
( da5id <YOUR SIG HERE>, Fri 26 Apr 2013, 18:21, closed)

this is worth watching
www.ted.com/talks/james_b_glattfelder_who_controls_the_world.html

more here:
www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0025995
( Moon Girl Technologies horrendous beanbag, Fri 26 Apr 2013, 18:26, closed)

That was interesting. Thanks.
The appearance of individually random behaviours by companies moving towards a complex system is the basis of most evolutionary systems.
Of course, it may just be the appearance of random behaviour, and actually controlled by Skynet...
...now where did I put that tinfoil?
( da5id <YOUR SIG HERE>, Fri 26 Apr 2013, 18:55, closed)

it's the ownership links that go round in a circle that intrigue me,
because nobody is ultimately in control of that at all, it's like some kind of "invisible emergent corporation" that doesn't legally exist but is there if you look for it.
( Moon Girl Technologies horrendous beanbag, Fri 26 Apr 2013, 19:00, closed)

I never said shareholders were fat cats.
Nor was I advocating a cut in dividends. I might object to the system, but I fully accept the necessity of living within it.
( monster munch person, man, woman... camera... TV?, Fri 26 Apr 2013, 20:18, closed)