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Thank you for a very detailed and thoughtful response.

I am afraid, it only confirms my suspicions: in complete agreement with the Marxist viewpoint, a person' value is monetary.

They get bigger Christman bonus's than most people will make in an entire career of working 50 hour weeks.

So what? They are either moral or immoral, correct or incorrect --- what does it have to do with their money. It's YOUR values that this sentence reflects.

And, incidentally, nobody minds NBA's prostitutes, although those players' salaries dwarf salaries and bonuses of the CEOs. It's CLASS envy, my friend. Michael Jackson makes every year fifteen times more than an average CEO of major corporation, but we are raised to believe that he is not in the same class. Same with gangsta-rap producers: they're just hoodlums from the 'hood --- just like the rest of us, right. Now, CEOs are the "moneyed class," the bourgeoisie. Straight from Marx.

As of the people you know that lost their houses, it is indeed very painful process. But that is past, when this occurred under "normal" circumstances. Now, that the economy is in trouble, they'll do everything possible to bail out the flippers and the greedy that, instead of buying a smaller house, bought a bigger one with zero down. That's the rule: as long as you walk with the heard, you'll not get hurt.

The CEO had a $50 million pay day last October. Even if he can never work again, so what?

Once again, YOU measure everything from the monetary perspective. The composer for Beech Boys is a multi-millionaire. He also spent almost all of his life suffering from a serious, debilitating depression. Sure, some of it is chemical. A big part of it is, however, that it is difficult to find what to do after reaching a pinnacle at 25. Long ago, Socrates sad that life by itself is worth nothing --- it's the virtuous life that matters. That was the wisdom of Western civilization for a long time. Even recently, in this country, people proclaimed "Give me liberty of give me death!" That was the American Dream. Now it's homeownership.

A CEO, too, may kill himself, if he finds no application for his talent. Money is far from everything. It is only for Marxists.

I think most people view many on Wall Street as only slightly better than thieves.

I know, defaming people is a sport today.

Judging from your remarks, you do not understand the value they provide and what they are paid for.

In particular, according to you, mergers have no value and create only harm. Well, if you disregard the benefits and include only costs, every endeavor is a disaster.

Lots of stocks lose 1/2 their value every day, or over a few weeks. FedGov doesn't make up those loses. Smith and Wesson went from 20 to 5. I didn't get a check from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. I didn't even get sympathy. What makes Bear Stearns, and other super-connected Wall Street firms, alone, worthy of bailouts.

My remark does not indicate in any way that I endorse the bailout. It only says that envy and anger are misdirected. As you yourself pointed out, the CEO will have what to live on whether Bear Stearns survives or not. It only underscores the irrationality of class warriors and immorality of their envy.