Goldman Gives God a miss this year?

...In an attempt to keep a low profile, The Goldman Sachs Group Inc. has told its employees that it won't be hosting a corporate Christmas party this year. The investment bank is also prohibiting employees from funding their own parties, an insider at the firm told InvestmentNews.

The Christmas party ban comes as Goldman has been under sharp public criticism for paying bigger bonuses this year while national unemployment hovers at 10.2% and many workers have taken pay cuts.

In the third quarter, the company announced a profit of $3.19 billion and said it has set aside nearly half of its revenue to reward its employees....

http://www.investmentnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091112/FREE/911129991

if you make 3.19 billion profit maybe its christmas every day?

thought they were doing gods work?

....Gods work and Capitalist ideology just do not match.....!

....If it did then we would not have had Victorian era, with great inventions, and equally great squalor that was one of worst in the Europe...

...If you ask any Capitalist if you are doing God's work and reply will be 'Yes we donate funds to Charity'...!

God's work and Capitalist ideology just do not match...?

Both the Old and New Testament are wonderfully instructive about how we are to honor God by working diligently AND by supporting the local church as well as feed the widows and the orphans (Colossians 3:23, Malachi 3:10, James 1:27).

Capitalism, as prescribed by biblical principles, (though it is not called capitalism) is a wonderful balance between striving to achieve all that you can while demonstrating a concern for those who are struggling. That concern can be demonstrated in many ways: by giving to people in need directly; by giving to ministries that have their fingers on the pulse of the need; by providing jobs or education to those who are struggling. There is no shortage of ways to be the hands and feet of Jesus to those in need.

Regarding Wall Street bonuses:

I have a good friend who is a recognized Wall Street name. He told me about another friend of his who generated 50 million in trading profits for the bank he trades for. His bonus? 8 thousand dollars.

There is a large gap between what the traders were doing and what management was pushing which precipitated the credit crisis. At many firms, the traders were taking direct opposite positions in their trading rooms while management (think Lehman leaders) was pushing for more and more exposure in CDS's, which they (the leadership) were woefully unclear about.

The traders saw the risk and were, in essence, taking the other side of their bosses trades. The bosses were nothing more than highly capitalized, highly leveraged wanna-be traders who followed the heard...right off the edge of the cliff. Any profits the traders at these firms generated were swallowed up by the leaders' losses.

"By your great skill in trading you have increased your wealth" Ezekiel 28:5

Give the traders the Christmas party! They earned it. But advise them to "remember the Lord [their] God, for it is He who gives you the ability to produce wealth" Deuteronomy 8:18.

...Perhaps i missed the point....next time I am in heart of capitalism, I will revisit some ghettos again.....Where death rate is worse than poorest country in this world....or perhaps gods work is not done yet, in the sense that it will slowly 'trickle' down eventually to all the needy....

...Perhaps that ambulance call out guy will stitch the victim up without asking for his insurance details....!

.....Let me give one example how a capitalist system can do god's work....

....In a very poor country where there is NO state national health.....where poverty is ripe...where poeople cannot afford to buy the complete list of medicines on prescription, there is a system in place...

...Town's richest industrialists ring a hospital and agree that in case a poor patient is unable to pay for operation, then it will be paid by them for next two days....And at times few rich indutrialists ring and agree the same....

...There are no names...no PR...no adverts...no media news.....patient is just told that his operation cost has been paid...!

....I should know this as this happens in my own town of my forefathers...!

I thought Goldman Sachs was God...?

....Last year it was dog....!