Word of the Day: Bean counter
Bean counter is a negative term that can be used to describe people who are accountants or otherwise responsible for the details of financial matters.
When someone wants to make an investment or spend company money, but it’s not approved, they often blame the bean counters.
Al Capone was an infamous Chicago gangster in the 1920s.
The police were unable to convict him of any major crimes, but eventually, it was the bean counters (tax officials) who caught him for tax evasion.
As they say, the devil is in the detail and accountants are very good at details.
You may say that is a good thing for society and you may be right.
But, many people liked Al Capone back then, and both Capone and those people would have thought of the tax officials as the enemy.
When I think about it, even today many people do not like tax officials and continue to refer to them in a derogatory way as bean counters.