Ed, your rant fails to take into account the very ideas that allowed America to become an economic superpower in the first place. You are guilty of condoning the very same behavior that has brought on the latest wave of economic woes.
What am I talking about? All things in moderation, that's what.
There's nothing wrong with profitability - indeed, it is a healthy and necessary driver in any economy. But, it's a sign of weakness and lack of intelligence to presume there is no cap on the amount of profit one can and should make. That's right, I'm talking about good old greed which is even mentioned as far back in time as the Bible.
Show me an auto executive, or any executive in any business, who says he is barely making ends meet and I'll show you a liar. I'm sick to death of hearing people whine "We had to move production to China because we couldn't make any money here." What they are really saying is "Rather than having this business support my family on $1 Million per year, and 200 other families at $50,000 per year, I found a way to make $6 million per year for my family and those other 200 families can go piss off.'
I don't want to make this personal but the mere fact that you were able to retire via lawyering at 27 or some such age speaks volumes. Somebody somewhere took a screwing to make that happen.
