greed

Leave it to the Wall Street Journal to find some morons with credentials who will sing the praises of greed, excessive bonuses, and unlimited pay. Or bemoan the country for "railing against the rich."

I have stated before that I don't have a problem with people pocketing ridiculous amounts of money -there is no way to stop them in any case, so why worry?- but I do have a serious problem when these individuals try to justify their bounty. Not only are these guys greedy, they also display hugely inflated egos and profoundly anti-social behavior. This is borderline psychopathic at best.

Arguments in favor of excessive compensation are totally bogus. Nobody in their right mind can claim that their efforts, insights, wit, or genius is worth three orders of magnitude in extra pay. Those who believe such things need to have their minds checked out. Face it, all these guys have going for them is that they happened to be in the right place at the right time. It may have taken them some maneuvering skill to get there,  but that is a far cry from the outrageous assertions they make.

Furthermore, recent events have shown that financial geniuses paying themselves millions not only do not create anything of value, they cause nothing but trouble. As one economics professor explained: they sell manure. Their great "contribution" to humanity was that they managed to temporarily convince everyone that it was rose-water.

At the very best financial wizards lubricate an unsustainable economy of waste and destruction. More often they just cause pain and hardship for everyone without producing anything of value in return.

There is a good reason why all religions think of greed as a sin. Greed is bad for humans. Not just for the greedy ones, it is bad for all of us. It lowers our chances of success as a species and it impacts our ability to survive.

Greed is like drug use gone wild. Some amount of selfishness is good and beneficial, much like an occasional glass of wine. But excessive consumption and addiction quickly becomes a threat not just to the well-being of the individual who engages in it, but also to those around them.

It is not just bad form for a prominent paper such as the Wall Street Journal to commend greed, it is reprehensible. Much like advocating addiction, or other destructive behaviors. Even they should know better.