Non Sequitur by Wiley Miller for December 05, 2008

If I were a banker, I’d say ouch.

Not to mess with comic perfection, but instead of “closed”, how about, “not getting bonuses this year”?

I cannot laugh at the misfortune of others. But I can snicker a little.

Dear Sirs,

I am writing to you to address your heartless and “least sympathetic comic strip”. I was recently laid-off by JPMorgan Chase and do not see the humor in your comic. I have over 20 years experience working in the financial industry rising from the clerical staff to Vice President by working my butt off and protecting not only the customer but the financial system itself. Over the years I have gone to work sick, through transit strikes and after spending the night in the emergency room with a sick child. Not all of us “got rich” working in the financial industry but we all felt satisfaction doing our jobs to the best of our ability. I personally did not get guaranteed annual raises but made due with raises after 18 to 24 months. This was to prevent lay-offs when times got bad. However, as we had our raises pushed back, the executive management teams got their huge bonuses. The workers who got laid-off did not cause the current poor economic situation. It was greed not found only in the finance industry but in many other industries, for example the auto industry. I believe that you owe us an apology and a retraction of your asinine comic. Either that or come to Long Island so I can whip your ass. Happy Holidays.

Wvandenburgh has a point.

wv – Let me be first to say that I empathize with you. I do not take pleasure in anyone losing their job.

You must realize that you were not the only one to go to work sick and tough it out through hardships. Many, many Americans “did the right thing” only to be ripped to shreds by ineptitude and greed in the banking and finance industries. This has created a lot of frustration, and the comic you see here is a representation of American ethos in late 2008.

You have the misfortune of being associated with an industry being rightly scapegoated at this time. Yet, this cartoon, in my opinion, represents the industry and not the individuals who worked in that industry. And that industry not only does not apologize for its past greed, it also now further perpetuates that greed at the expense of the consumer.

Mr. Miller’s cartoons act as a necessary commentary, and in my opinion, no retraction is warranted. Instead, I think it would be a shame if we pulled the wool over our own eyes and hid from the truth.

Wvandenburg, I offer my sympathy and hope things improve for you. Your point is well taken, though I doubt that Mr. Miller, who has come across overall as an intelligent social observer, intended to blame honest bank employees for the current recession. Best wishes to you.

wvandenburgh: Just post your salary & bonuses as VP… Oh, and your address in Long Island.

wvandenburgh- I also empathize with you but you stated “the executive management teams got their huge bonuses” & I feel Mr. Miller is directing his ire to them and not to those, such as yourself, who (used to) work for them. You may very well be the one out front with the cup while they sit, nice & warm sipping their cognacs. Not very noble of them. I imagine there might be a warm, special place in Hades that looks like the strip from two days ago just for them, but with punji stakes for a landing pad.

Blessings on you & your household and my your days ahead be complete with opportunity and prosperity.

People shoudln’t be offended by comics…If you are, you take life too serioulsy. I’ve been active duty military for 25 years and still going. You don’t even want to hear my horror stories of young enlisted guys (including myself at one time) who can’t afford this or that…AND these guys VOLUNTEER to put their lives on the line.

I’d like to address this to YouWereWarned. I was on an annual salary so regardless the number of hours I worked I received the same base salary. However, I usually worked between 50 and 60 hours per week in the office, plus another 2-4 hours per day at home. Therefore, my hourly salary, including bonus, was approx. $40. per hour. Also, Keabu’1, I am also a veteran who served 4 years in the US Navy serving overseas for one year and aboard a carrier for three. When I was discharged from the service, I used the GI Bill to help pay for college while I worked full time and attended classes full time. I did my part.

Thank you both (from a fellow vet) for your service to our country - still great in times of hardship. Whenever I am inclined to take a comic seriously, I find myself considering the details. Please notice that the humor in this is found in the multiple cups, each adding to the expected gratuity a fee or surcharge to the extent that the giver is unfairly taken advantage of. Now consider who would do this - the executives, and not the loyal, and hardworking employees. The employees are every bit as exploited as the sought-after donor targeted by the beggar’s efforts.

Circuit7, thanks for your comments and THANKS for your service as well.

WV, I’m just saying take a comic as a comic. I certainly am not making light of your situation. If I were one to be offended by comics, Doonesbury would offend me every day. I’m almost at the oppostite end of the spectrum from his political views. But I just chuckle and go on. On the other hand, some of the comments people post at the Doonesbury comic get me going :)

In my eyes, the cartoon is a commentary on all the fees that banks charge for services today. I find it very funny. That said, W, I’m sorry for your troubles.

A lot of very good people work for very bad systems. Unfortunately, it’s the bad systems, not the good people, who are getting bailed out.

Let’s not take the funnypapers too seriously while licking our wounds and learning our lessons.

I’m sorry, but I find this to true. While I feel for anyone who has lost his or her job…I don’t believe a VP at any level in an organization is completely blameless. wvandenburgh…you made significantly more money than many of the people around you. You mentioned working your way up. Unfortunately, most businesses don’t afford workers that opportunity today. To get into banking these days you have to be from a top school or already have 20 years of experience. There were workers all around you living paycheck to paycheck that didn’t have the bonuses or the high base salary that you probably did. What are they supposed to do? I have more sympathy for them than I do for you. You probably made enough that you could have been debt free and had at least a years salary put in savings for just such an emergency. As far as military experience goes…I served as well…like you for 4 years. However, I have many friends and family members who have served considerably longer. Their jobs are no safer than anyone elses’ right now. They certainly aren’t making what they’re worth at their jobs. I don’t think you can compare your 4 years of service to someones 20+.

Could be just a perception, but designations are handed out in the finance industry rather early. So you could really have a VP in a bank living on salary and not having any bonuses.

Considering the housing prices on long island $160K a year isn’t much.

VP positions tend to be fairly abundant in some businesses and rather focused (i.e. VP of lending rocky mountain division). Combine this with the fact that only a small number of divisions at any company initiate most of the problems with that company and VPs have little power over what happens in the big picture.

While I have never in my live been close to a salary of $40 /hour, I do know a few little things about corporate structure. One of the lessons I have learned in my life is that the higher up the ladder you get the more likely that someone above you will use you as a scapegoat. Deserved or not, it happens and it will continue to happen as long as the corporate structure exists. I say be glad you got as far as you did before the roof came tumbling in on you. You sound like a pretty solid human being, I think that you will probably come out of this with you skin intact. But you need to quit taking comics quite so seriously and laugh, it’s way better than crying, and more likely to make you some friends.

I kind of agree with wvandenburgh…all the ‘economic crisis’ strips have become a bit boring, if you’re reading this, Wiley. I mean they’re funny, pretty much, but they get boring after a while.

I posted my comment on Doonesbury on Nov. 3rd. Here was my comment; It must be very sad for all of those people who loved to work for long time had to leave and find another jobs with low pays, no health benefits unless must have health benefits for our healths’sakes and so forth. Let God bless all of us to find the jobs that will be better than nothing.

wvandenburgh, I know how you feel that you just lost the best job that you worked for long time. It was so pain to lose the job Hopefully you will find the better job that will be better than nothing. I will pray for you to get better job.

Surely when you criticise a comic you’re only criticising the view of a single person? It seems unnecessary to cause such a fuss.

Jez Cave says: Surely when you criticise a comic you’re only criticising the view of a single person? It seems unnecessary to cause such a fuss. You nitwit! You have no brain to understand what the person talked about losing his job. Sheesh! give him bloody break!