In Leo Rosten's wonderful 1968 book, "The Joys of Yiddish," the term "chutzpah" is defined as "gall, brazen nerve, effrontery, incredible 'guts'; presumption-plus-arrogance such as no other word ... can do justice to." He provides, by way of example, "that quality enshrined in a man who, having killed his mother and father, throws himself on the mercy of the court because he is an orphan."
Today, we see the spectacle of the Wall Street banks which produced our current economic crisis accepting TARP funds having paid some of their employees what would, to the rest of us, be awesome bonuses.
We've been talking about the injustice and illogic of the extremely high levels of CEO pay, produced by boards which are beholden to those who recommended them for their portfolio of paying-jobs-in-retirement. But it may well be that the dollars paid to the portion of the FIRE (finance, insurance and real estate) sector commonly referred to as "Wall Street" may put the CEO package dollars to shame, or at least give them a run for our money.
When some of us get to reap what we did not sow, others can't possibly reap what they did sow. In that sense, it is a zero-sum game.
It doesn't come out of thin air.
It might look as if it does, but it doesn't.
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