  Finally, a topic to write about. I've been wanting to post to my blog for a week now, but I haven't had anything to say that wouldn't cascade away into an uninteresting, overly-personal rant. Last week, I signed up to lead a Goldman Sachs Community Team Works project. I will be leading a group to help a larger group build Goldman Sachs Habitat for Humanity low-income housing. Now, look, I understand the importance of volunteering. My father used to drag my ass outside to pick up trash along the neighborhood playground because the city wouldn't pay to have it done.
And needless to say that I would love to get out of the office and sacrifice a day to help those less fortunate, but really, shouldn't I just write a check? Writing from the Capitalist Center of the World, let's be honest. Considering that 20% of the Goldman Sachs employee body carries the title "Vice President," it's not outrageous to estimate that the median salary for a GS employee hits somewhere around a thousand bucks a day. My father helps manage a carpenter and contractor business. He doesn't build houses, he mostly refinishes basements, but it means that I know what your average for-hire spackler makes. And it's a hell of a lot less than a thousand bucks a day. In fact, I wager that you could hire 10 very happy for-hire carpenter laborors for what it costs a mid-upper level Goldman Sachs employee to miss work.
That doesn't make good business sense. Of course, it makes for a great photo-opportunity. After all, Goldman Sachs makes sure that each of the houses its employees work on are only worked on by Goldman Sachs employees, thus allowing the company to hold the good-will rights to the house. Collective effort? Hell no, this house was built with Goldman Sachs' blood, sweat, and tears, at 10 times the cost, for the less fortunate. 
