Goldman Sachs dividends on the rise.
Goldman Sachs to return the people's money over 20 years instead of paying taxes.
The Dow Jones index rose 10% yesterday.
Banks are taking public money and still foreclosing on houses.
Bankers have no shame. It's not required by law.
I hope you know that stocks began being used in Englandfor farm workers who dared to ask for more money
(they knew that demand for labour was high after the Black Death).
Therefore, in that era,
creating economic strife was enough to have someone
confined in stocks in public and shamed.
So, what about now?
What should we do to the bankers
who took our money and jobs?
The government ignore our moral outrage
while the media refuses to place them into the focus of public scrutiny?
stay tuned.
-Costick67 (8^P
checkitout:
A long history, from
http://www.geocities.com/WestHollywood/Heights/9417/history.html
Stocks and pillories have been used in parts of Europe more than 1000 years, probably much longer in Asia, and certainly before reliable records began. The earliest recorded reference to stocks in Europe appears in the Utrecht Psalter, which dates from around 820 AD.
Stocks had become common in England by the mid-14th century. In 1351 a law (the Statute of Labourers) was introduced requiring every town to provide and maintain a set of stocks. This had been implemented as a reaction to the Black Death, which had halved the population. The consequent scarcity of labour had enabled agricultural labourers to demand increased pay. The Statute attempted to discourage this trend by providing that anyone demanding (or offering) higher wages should be set in the stocks for up to 3 days.
Stocks were later used to control the unemployed. A statute passed in 1495 required that vagabonds should be set in the stocks for 3 days on bread and water and then sent away (where presumably they would have faced a similar fate). If a vagabond returned to the same parish, he or she would receive another 6 days in the stocks. These punishments were however seen as excessive and the lengths of time in the stocks were later reduced to 1 and 3 days respectively.
A Statute of 1605 required that anyone convicted of drunkenness should receive six hours in the stocks, and those convicted of being a drunkard (as opposed to be caught drunk) should suffer 4 hours in the stocks or pay a substantial fine (of 3 shillings and 6 pence). A slightly later Statute made it legal to set those caught swearing in the stocks for 1 hour, if they could or would not pay a 12 pence fine. In practice the authorities preferred offenders to pay fines as the monies were used to fund poor relief.
