What's a Business degree worth? On Wall Street, a lot! For society, not so much.

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by Walter Brasch

If you don't mind working hard--and partying even harder--why not get a business degree, take a couple of state and federal tests, and become a Wall Street trader?

These are the people who are the current crop of Gordon Gekkos--you know, the pretend-fictional character portrayed by Michael Douglas in Wall Street. The men spend thousands of dollars on suits, ties, and cocaine. The women spend thousands just to own a closet of Jimmy Choo shoes.

But their existence is shrouded by a coop they call an office or cubicle. Their tools are multiple phone lines and computer screens.

The chase for money--and perhaps the excitement in getting people to give up a chunk of their earned income after hearing a finely-tuned pitch--drives these college graduates.

But, the rewards are high.

Last year, Wall Street paid $28.5 billion in bonuses. That's an average of $172,000 per person. Some got more. Some less. But, overall, those who worked on Wall Street made, just in bonuses, about $172,000. Summer interns in investment banking earned about $6,000 a month for their summer. The salaries and compensation rise significantly after they get their business degrees and begin a career of the search for the holy grail. In their case, the holy grail is nothing less than a pile of luxuries that the rest of us only know about because of ads in Fortune Magazine.

Why these people earn 6, 7- and 8-figure incomes is because business and the greed for piling up stock options, not service to mankind, dominates the American workforce. More important, they know they can not just enter the gray area of ethics but step over it; almost none of them were fined or jailed for leading the country into the housing crisis and Great Recession that began near the end of the Bush--Cheney administration.

Now, let's take a look at the rest of us. The ones who don't get corporate welfare, government bailouts, and golden retirement bonuses.

Last year, about one million Americans worked full-time for minimum wage. Their combined earnings were about $8 billion. A full-time worker making the federal minimum wage earns about $7.25 an hour. That's about $15,080 a year. The nation's poverty threshold is $11,770. Thus, the worker, if she or he has no dependents, earns only about $12.70 a day more than the poverty guidelines.

If the worker has one dependent, the poverty guideline is $15,930; thus, the worker is earning less than what the federal government says is a poverty wage.

Now, let's pretend the employer is generous and pays $10 an hour--that's $20,800 a year. Figure rent, utilities, car expenses to get to the job, car and health insurance, and the usual local, state, and federal payroll deductions, and the worker would have to borrow the funds to go to a movie and buy a soda and popcorn.

But, business owners say they can't afford to increase minimum wage. It'd ruin the economy they say. It'll bring down capitalism, they claim. $7.25 an hour--maybe even $10 an hour--is fair. But, a minimum wage of $15 an hour--like what Los Angeles recently passed--and which won't take effect for five years--well, that's just unreasonable.

With the support of the local Chambers of Commerce, employers declare that raising wages would mean an increase in retail prices. What many small business owners don't fully understand is that their customers are usually from the lower- and middle-classes. When wages are depressed, purchasing is diminished. By paying their own employees sub-standard wages, the owners, no matter how good employers they may be, cause fewer purchases for all community businesses.

For megacorporation retailers, the situation is slightly different, one based upon a corporate philosophy of "maximizing profits" and paying bigger dividends to investors than wages to the people who actually do the work.

At Walmart, the six Walton family owners have a combined worth of about $160 billion. Management just raised the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour, and then complained it was costing $65 million a month. Assume even a $1 billion a year increase for Walmart's workers, that would still leave a net profit of about $15 billion a year.

McDonald's CEO Dan Thompson earned $9.5 million last year; his full-time workers earn an average of $16,000--$19,000 a year. A pay increase would affect the owners of 30,000 franchise locations, but increase the price of a double quarter-pounder cheeseburger only pennies. Anyone willing to pay $6.79 for a fast-food burger probably won't notice a $6.85 charge.

A study conducted by Dr. Kathleen Maclay of the University of California revealed that American taxpayers contribute about $7 billion a year in welfare payments to the low-paid workers in the fast-foods industry. In contrast, McDonald's had about $5.7 billion in net profits in 2013.

Back on Wall Street, brokers and traders would be apoplectic if all corporations improved wages, benefits, and working conditions. There would be less return on investment, and clients might not invest as much. Clients who don't invest as much also means the Wall Street Zoo will receive less income, since much of their own wages are determined by commissions.

So, Wall Street needs to make sure they hustle customers and keep them pouring money into corporations.

It's just "good business practices." After all, they and the million-dollar company executives they support deserve it. They studied business in college.

[Dr. Brasch is an award-winning social issues journalist. His latest book is Fracking Pennsylvania, an analysis of the history, economics, and politics of fracking, as well as its environmental and health effects.]

Authors Website: http://www.walterbrasch.com

Authors Bio:

Walter Brasch is an award-winning journalist and professor of journalism emeritus. His current books are Before the First Snow: Stories from the Revolution , America's Unpatriotic Acts: The Federal Government's Violation of Constitutional and Civil Rights, and 'Unacceptable': The Federal response to Hurricane Katrina, available at amazon.com, borders.com and most major on-line bookstores. BEFORE THE FIRST SNOW is also available at www.greeleyandstone.com (20 discount)

Walter Brasch, a deeply valued Senior Editor at OpEdNews passed from this world on February 9, 2017, age 71, his obituary follows:

Walter M. Brasch, Ph.D., age 71, of 2460 Second Street, Bloomsburg (Espy), died Thursday, Feb. 9, 2017, at Geisinger Medical Center, Danville surrounded by his family.

He was an award-winning former newspaper reporter and editor in California, Iowa, Indiana, and Ohio; professor emeritus of mass communications and journalism at Bloomsburg University; and an award-winning social issues journalist and book author.

Walter was born March 2, 1945, in San Diego, the son of Milton Brasch and Helen (Haskin) Brasch and was a 34 year resident of Espy.

In his early years he was a writer-producer for multimedia and film companies in California, and a copywriter and political analyst for advertising and public relations companies. For five years during the late 1990s, he was the media and social issues commentator for United Broadcasting Network. He was also the author of a syndicated newspaper column since 1992 and the creative vice-president of Scripts Destitute of Phoenix.

Dr. Brasch was a member of the Local Emergency Planning Committee and was active in the Columbia County Emergency Management Agency. He was vice-president of the Central Susquehanna chapter of the ACLU, vice-president and co-founder of the Northeast Pennsylvania Homeless Alliance, a member of the board of the Keystone Beacon Community for healthcare coordination, and was active in numerous social causes. He was co-founder with his wife Rosemary Brasch of The Oasis, a biweekly newsletter for families and friends of personnel stationed in the Persian Gulf. Later, during Operation Iraqi Freedom, they published The Oasis 2, for families of persons in combat zones. They were supported by the Bloomsburg Chapter, America Red Cross and Geisinger Medical Center, Danville.

He was the author of 20 books, most which fuse historical and contemporary social issues. Among his books are Black English and the Mass Media (1981); Forerunners of Revolution: Muckrakers and the American Social Conscience (1991); With Just Cause: The Unionization of the American Journalist (1991); Sex and the Single Beer Can: Probing the Media and American Culture (1997); Brer Rabbit, Uncle Remus, and the 'Cornfield Journalist': The Tale of Joel Chandler Harris (2000); The Joy of Sax: America During the Bill Clinton Era (2001); Unacceptable: The federal Response to Hurricane Katrina (2005); America's Unpatriotic Acts: The Federal Government's Violation of Constitutional and Civil Rights (2006); Sinking the Ship of State: The Presidency of George W. Bush (2007);  and Before the First Snow (2011). He was co-author of The Press and the State (1986), awarded Outstanding Academic Book distinction by Choice magazine, published by the American Library Association.

His last book is Fracking America: Sacrificing Health and the Environment for Short-Term Economic Benefit (2015), a critically-acclaimed novel that looks at what happens when government and energy companies form a symbiotic relationship, using "cheaper, cleaner" fuel and the lure of jobs in a depressed economy but at the expense of significant health and environmental impact.

During the past two decades, he won more than 150 regional and national media awards from the National Society of Newspaper Columnists, Society of Professional Journalists, National Federation of Press Women, USA Book News, Independent Book Publishing Professionals Group, Pennsylvania Press Club, Pennsylvania Women's Press Association, Pennsylvania Associated Press Broadcasters Association, Penn-writers, International Association of Business Communicators, Pacific Coast Press Club, and Press Club of Southern California. He was recognized in 2012 by the Pennsylvania Press Club with the Communicator of Achievement award for lifetime achievement in journalism and public service.

He was an Eagle Scout; co-recipient of the Civil Liberties Award of the American Civil Liberties Union, 1996; and was honored by San Diego State University as a Points of Excellence winner in 1997. In 2000, he received the Herb Caen Memorial Award of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists. For the Pennsylvania Humanities Council he was twice named a Commonwealth speaker. He also received the meritorious achievement medal of the U.S. Coast Guard.

At Bloomsburg University, he earned the Creative Arts Award, the Creative Teaching Award, and was named an Outstanding Student Advisor. He received the first annual Dean's Salute to Excellence in 2002, a second award in 2007, and the Maroon and Gold Quill Award for nonfiction. He was the 2004 recipient of the Martin Luther King Jr. Humanitarian Service Award. For 22 years, he was Editor-In-Chief of the awarding-winning Spectrum Magazine, part of the journalism program of the Department of Mass Communications, Bloomsburg University until his retirement in 2010.  The community magazine was published twice a year by students for residents of Columbia and Montour counties in northeastern Pennsylvania and one of the few to be inducted into the national Associated Collegiate Press hall of fame. The magazine was also a consistent award winner in competition sponsored by the Society of Professional Journalists, Columbia Scholastic Press Association, and the American Scholastic Press Association. He primarily taught magazine editing and production, public affairs reporting, feature writing, newspaper editing; every Fall, he taught a 250-student section on mass communications and the popular arts.

 Dr. Brasch was co founder of the qualitative studies division of the Association for Education in Journalism, president of the Keystone State professional chapter and for three years deputy regional director of the Society of Professional Journalists, from which he received the Director's Award and the National Freedom of Information Award. He was president of the Pennsylvania Press Club, vice-president of the Pennsylvania Women's Press Association, and founding coordinator of Pennsylvania Journalism Educators. He was a featured columnist for Liberal Opinion Week, senior correspondent for the American Reporter, senior editor for OpEdNews, and an editorial board member of Journalism History and the Journal of Media Law and Ethics.

He was a member of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists, Author's Guild, National Writers Union (UAW/AFL-CIO), The Newspaper Guild (CWA/AFL-CIO), and the Society of Environmental Journalists. He was a life member of the service fraternity Alpha Phi Omega, and was indicted into the national scholarship honor societies Phi Kappa Phi (general scholarship), Kappa Tau Alpha (journalism), Pi Gamma Mu (social sciences), and Kappa Tau Alpha (sociology.) He is listed in Who's Who in America, Who's Who in the East, Contemporary Authors, Who's Who in the Media and Who's Who in Education. Dr. Brasch earned an A.B. in sociology from San Diego State College, an M.A. in journalism from Ball State University, and a Ph.D. in mass communication/journalism, with a cognate area in both American government/public policy and language and culture studies, from The Ohio State University.

He is survived by his wife of 34 years, the former Rosemary Renn the most wonderful thing that happened in his life and whom he loved very much; two sons, Jeffery Gerber, Phoenix AZ and Matthew Gerber and his wife, Laurel  (Neyhard)  of Bloomsburg, a sister, Corey Brasch of Sacramento, Calif; a niece, Terri Pearson-Fuchs, Calif, numerous cousins; and his beloved dogs Cabot and Remy.

Funeral services will be held on Wednesday, at 2:00 p.m. at the Dean W. Kriner Inc. Funeral Home & Cremation Service,  325 Market St., Bloomsburg with family friend, Nathaniel Mitchell officiating. Interment in Elan Memorial Park, Lime Ridge.

Friends may call at the funeral home on Tuesday from 6 - 8 p.m. or Wednesday from 1-2 p.m.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be sent to the Walter M. Brasch Scholarship Fund,

c/o First Keystone Community Bank, 2301 Columbia Blvd, Bloomsburg, PA 17815 or to

Mostly Mutts, 284 Little Mountain Rd., Sunbury, PA 17801