Capitalists and Other Psychopaths

NYTIMES Sunday Review ^ | May 12-13, 2012 | WILLIAM DERESIEWICZ

[fight_truth_decay]

THERE is an ongoing debate in this country about the rich: who they are, what their social role may be, whether they are good or bad. Well, consider the following. A recent study found that 10 percent of people who work on Wall Street are “clinical psychopaths,” exhibiting a lack of interest in and empathy for others and an “unparalleled capacity for lying, fabrication, and manipulation.” (The proportion at large is 1 percent.) Another study concluded that the rich are more likely to lie, cheat and break the law.

The only thing that puzzles me about these claims is that anyone would find them surprising. Wall Street is capitalism in its purest form, and capitalism is predicated on bad behavior. This should hardly be news. The English writer Bernard Mandeville asserted as much nearly three centuries ago in a satirical-poem-cum-philosophical-treatise called “The Fable of the Bees.”

“Private Vices, Publick Benefits” read the book’s subtitle. A Machiavelli of the economic realm

[massgopguy]

You never see Liberals giving their Resumes to Homeless People in order to get a job. It always seems to be the other way around. those that don’t realize this are psychos.

[andy58-in-nh]

"...capitalism is predicated on bad behavior."

Did "Capitalism" cause this?:

Or this?:

Or this?:

No. Socialism did. Not a "perversion" of socialism or a "misapplication" of socialism.

Socialism kills. First it kills the human spirit, and then it kills people.

Capitalism is predicated on freedom, human rights, sound money, voluntary exchange of value and a limited government which derives its authority from the people.

The economic system that exists today in most Western nations is a type of state socialism or corporatism in which people are made to claim their rights from the government, including the right to own and exchange capital.

[MtBaldy]

The article is BS:

http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/03/psychopaths_on_wall_street.html

[mjp]

Capitalist values are antithetical to Christian ones.

Capitalism is the economic system that is compatible with God-given natural rights, God-given human nature, and Biblical justice.

Capitalist values are also antithetical to democratic ones.

Capitalism is the economic system that is compatible with freedom and the idea that human relations should be voluntary and not coerced. Studies have also shown that capitalism and accumulation of wealth in a country tends to lead to more democracy in the long run. The order of the series of tendencies is the presence of property rights, cultural rationality, accumulation of capital and capital markets, and technological progress lead to prosperity, which leads to citizen empowerment, which leads to democracy.

The rich deserve our gratitude as well as everything they have, in other words, and all the rest is envy.

The process of capital accumulation by the rich, capitalists, and businessmen is a series of steps that as a natural part of the process naturally produces higher real wages for the average worker and thus a higher standard of living that is able to expand beyond subsistence, a larger share of total consumption by workers compared to the rich, greater economic progress and greater prosperity, and higher employment that is able to expand to meet population growth.

[fight_truth_decay]

Liberals giving their Resumes to Homeless People

Hell, they steal the Daily Bread allotted for the Homeless People when "occupying".

Note: A Panera store I frequent has a "gift card" set up by caring citizens for a known older Homeless person, "clean" as Biden would say-a white woman "always walking" who will come in quietly pulling her cart-and present her card..unaware others have added to it. The first was presented to the store for her by an unknown gentleman with value $200 @Christmas.

[ctdonath2]

Every day Panera donates remaining bread to charity. I’ve got a trunkload to deliver this evening.

[sleepy_hollow]

So, here's an interesting question for the so-called authors of this tripe:

What should we call the perpetrators of the hoax on the ECU of Greece's entry into the ECU? Apparently according to the synopsis at this link:

http://www.globalpropertyguide.com/Europe/Greece/Price-History

Greece, the country, that is the well-known socialist country, the far left country, the one that is the current poster-child for the road ahead for all socialist economies is also a lying and cheating, perhaps clinically psychopathic nation. To wit:

“In November 2004, however, Greece admitted that it had fudged its figures to gain entry into the Eurozone. Its budget deficit had not been never within [sic] the EU limit of 3% of GDP since 1999. It was also revealed in early 2010 that Greece had paid Goldman Sachs and other banks to hide the true amount of its debt and borrowing.”

So, we have the paiens of capitalism in cahoots with the archetypical socialists. What in heaven's name does that mean? Frankly, I think there are many more than 10% in gov’t and political ranks who are clinical psychopaths than in any business community. Just look at all the nuts on the cable shows, their guests, and then think about all of the politicians over the years.

This is too easy to swat away.

[Uri’el-2012]

Capitalism

Capitalism is a pejorative word to describe
freedom and liberty created by Marxists.

[fight_truth_decay]

Am a fan of Panera. A local baker, small business “cottage industry” also donates bread, pies etc after marketday—Am a Big Fan of Panera as well as the above small business.
Realized have not eaten today-——————————>later.

[Nateman]

I wonder what the percent of psychopaths is for people in congress. Easily higher than 10%. If socialist the percent is near 99% as that is all that system will filter through. When the rule becomes the rule of arbitrary force the murderer trumps the pickpocket.

[KarlInOhio]

The Walmart bribery scandal, the News Corp. hacking scandal — just open up the business section on an average day. Shafting your workers, hurting your customers, destroying the land. Leaving the public to pick up the tab.

If the public (as forced by the scoundrels in DC) weren't there to pick up the tab, many of those flaws would have been fixed years ago. The trapeze artist will do more spectacular flips when he knows the net is there to catch him .

As for the Walmart bribery scandal: Is that a Walmart problem or a problem with yet another generation of Mexican government officials who won't do their job unless la mordita is paid?

[GraceG]

Grace’s Law: The larger the government the more Psychopaths it attracts to the highest positions of power.

[Talisker]

The New York Times calling someone a "clinical psychopath"?

I don't care who you are, that's funny!

[rusty schucklefurd]

re: “Another study concluded that the rich are more likely to lie, cheat and break the law.”

Yes, studies conceived and carried out by ardent capitalists I'm sure - isn't that what all sociologists are? This would be like cats doing studies to find out if everyone else truly is annoying to them.

[MtBaldy]

“Frankly, I think there are many more than 10% in gov’t and political ranks who are clinical psychopaths than in any business community. Just look at all the nuts on the cable shows, their guests, and then think about all of the politicians over the years.”

I agree, or at least sociopaths. Nancy Pelosi looks and sounds completely bonkers. So do Debbie Wasserman-Schultz and Bahney Fwank for that matter.

[Leto]

Having worked as a vendor (computer & Software in the 80’s) I have no problem believing this. It is an area with the ruthless can flourish, trying to tie it to capitalism in general is a rela leap.

If yo REALLY want to see a concentration of psychopoaths look at politicians. Perhaps the NYT should do and article on that ;) .Obama and B Clinton are just 2 recent examples. Congress is rife with them, IMO.

[ripley]

“Capitalists and Other Psychopaths”

Sounds like a perfect case of projection by a really, really brilliant, smart, intelligent, Progressive genius. /s/

IMHO

[Misterioso]

A communist writing about capitalism? In the New York Times? Where will it all end?

[Publius6961]

Wall Street is capitalism in its purest form, and capitalism is predicated on bad behavior.

Correct, but not quite accurate.
It is ultimate perversion of capitalism, and will continue to destroy the best successful historical example of capitalism in history : the U.S.A.
Unless the perps of the Wall Street fiasco are run down and imprisoned (active or retired), the ones who made trillion$ disappear overnight and who fled with their loot, capitalism will never heal, and history will repeat. Obviously switching to communism is a cure worse than the disease.

Not going to waste my time contrasting it to socialism or communism. If you already know, no explanation is necessary. If you don't, no explanation is possible.
You either have a firm grasp of history and human nature, or you don't.

Learning how the perversion came about is fascinating. It did not start in the mid-twentieth century; oddly enough, it started around mid-nineteenth century, just prior to our civil war, long before airliners, trains, ships and cars. Before people worlwide had decent lighting, to conquer the night. And curiously, it started with lighting the night; and oil, and the original unrestrained capitalists. It has been 150 years!

Not surprisingly, most of the current conflict revolves around oil and primitive cultures.

If anyone truly wants to grasp the evolution of economic dysfuction, one books will explain it all in painful detail :

My only other comment is that I don't buy the 10% figure in Wall Street workers. My guess is closer to 25%. Otherwise it would never have been tolerated as long as it has. There is something very seductive, powerful and irresistible about the "no ethics or morals" culture. "Smart and educated" play a tiny role in the process.

[supercat]

It’s capitalism, just now the government has control of more of the capital.

Some significant sectors of the financial industry make money by figuring out how to attract government "bail-outs". The looser politicians are with bail-out funds, the more such finds will be "needed".

To understand why, consider the following "game": Player wagers $100 at 1:1 odds that the first card in a newly-shuffled deck will be a 10 or higher. It should not take a math genius to realize that the house vig in this game is pretty huge: out of 13 plays, the player will win 5 and lose 8; the vig is thus 22%, and the game is clearly unattractive to anyone seeking to make money.

Suppose, however, that the government offered to reimburse people who played the game 50% of anything they lost on each hand. Every 13 plays, the player would stand to win 5 and lose 4 (net +1), while the house would stand to win 8 and lose 5 (net +3). The game would thus be win-win for both the house and the player. The only loser would be the taxpayers (who would be the real source of all the money won by both the players and the house).

While there are many people on Wall Street who generate wealth by causing resources to be distributed more efficiently than they otherwise would, there are many who produce wealth for themselves by placing bets that in real terms should have a negative net expectation, but which include an unstated "side bet" that the bettor will be able to fleece someone else (likely the taxpayers) if they lose on the primary bet. Such behavior is antithetical to real capitalism, since it deliberately mis-allocates resources so as to maximize the bettor's ability to harvest bail-out cash.