Nothing Will Happen

Not so long ago, there was a big country called Guy-Yah where the people were divided into two classes: the Bankers and the Peasants.

The Bankers didn't all work in banks; they could be accountants, insurance agents, financial consultants or economists. Still, they were called the Bankers because they knew each other and were fabulously rich.

The Peasants didn't all work at farms; they could be educators, transport workers, healthcare workers, artists or scientists. Still, they were called the Peasants because they didn't know each other and were remarkably poor.

The Bankers were a tiny minority but controlled most of the money in the country and lived lives of obscene wealth and excess. The Peasants were far more numerous but tolerated the Bankers' behaviour because they were convinced by them that the Bankers were indispensable to society.

In particular, many greedy Peasants enthusiastically supported the Bankers because they were promised endless riches, which the Bankers gave out sparingly.

Then one day, everything went very wrong.

The Bankers, in an attempt to outdo each other in creating the Ultimate financial technology to milk more and more money from the financial system, finally caused the system to crash. The entire economy of the country was collapsing, and the government had to resort to printing money out of thin air in order to prevent a total meltdown.

But because the Bankers considered themselves to be indispensable to society, they needn't hold themselves responsible for their misdeeds.

Instead, they continued to collect their huge paychecks and fat bonuses as usual, leaving the Peasants to bear the brunt of the economic turmoid in the forms of retrenchments, unemployment, home foreclosures, lost retirement savings and bankruptcies.

The Peasants are poor but not totally made of stupid.

They soon realized what was going on and gradually organized themselves, launching massive protests in major cities to compel the Bankers to exercise accountability in their actions. Some of the Bankers who witnessed the anger of the Peasants firsthand were rightly alarmed of the terrible public opinion of Bankers, and decided to keep a low profile.

However, for some unknown reason, Bankers in the small city of Ning continued to strut around proudly and flaunt their ill-gotten wealth as if nothing had happened.

They wanted to employ more people to join the Bankers, and so with blatant disregard to the public sentiment, took out full-page "infomercials" in the newspapers with glossy photos of aspiring Bankers to show off how insanely rich and powerful a Banker can become.

Initially, the response was muted as the enraged Peasants continued to believe that the Bankers were indispensable.

But they slowly realized that if the Bankers could not quickly repair the ailing economy, then their "indispensability" would be disputed and become a rallying call for action.

Months later, during the worst stage of the economic crisis, the Peasants finally struck back.

The reprisal was swift and merciless.

Financial institutions were broken into by huge angry hordes and the Bankers were dragged out screaming and kicking, and brutally beaten to death - their bodies hung on traffic lights as a grisly warning to others.

Fellow Bankers in other cities looked on in horror at the scale and ferocity of the massacre.

They asked: "Where are the security guards?"

The Peasants replied: "Retrenched!"

They asked: "Where are the police?"

The Peasants replied: "Forced to go on unpaid leave!"

They asked: "Where are the LAWYERS!?!!"

The Peasants replied: "LAID OFF!"

Indeed the Bankers had become so effective at absorbing the maximum wealth for themselves that they had left the Peasant class with nothing to lose, thus inadvertently sealing their own fate.

From a distant vantage point, an observer watched as hundreds of dead bodies swung eeriely on lamp posts and traffic lights throughout the country.

Nodding approvingly, the observer wrote something into his notebook and left the scene.