If you're so smart, why aren't you rich?

That was a common phrase form a Kurt Vonnegut book, I think it was "Cats Cradle". Vonnegut is probably my favorite writer, nobody captures irony and the death of the American Dream better (maybe Hunter S. Thompson, but in a very different way). Beyond the American Dream, however, Vonnegut is probably better than anyone else ever has been at seeing huge faults in humanity, that, in his gloomy view of said species end up wreaking massive pain and suffering.
I love that expression, not because I agree with it, but because I think it summarizes everything I hate about this world. Many people, of all social standards, actually believe that you should be extremely wealthy if you're smart and that if you're not extremely wealthy you're not smart and, the worst of all possible corollaries, that if you're extremely wealthy you must be quite smart. But whatever happened to the good old fashioned American notion that all the wealthiest people are likely absolute crooks in some way or another?
This, more or less, was the subject of a recent column by recent Nobel Prize in Economics winner Paul Krugman http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/19/opinion/19krugman.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink.
This column basically laments how the financial industry has screwed us over by taking peoples money, investing it in high yield, high risk stocks, taking the bonuses and high salaries when things are good and than walking away when the investments all turn sour. --

--from Krugman:

Meanwhile, how much has our nation’s future been damaged by the magnetic pull of quick personal wealth, which for years has drawn many of our best and brightest young people into investment banking, at the expense of science, public service and just about everything else?

Most of all, the vast riches being earned — or maybe that should be “earned” — in our bloated financial industry undermined our sense of reality and degraded our judgment.

Think of the way almost everyone important missed the warning signs of an impending crisis. How was that possible? How, for example, could Alan Greenspan have declared, just a few years ago, that “the financial system as a whole has become more resilient” — thanks to derivatives, no less? The answer, I believe, is that there’s an innate tendency on the part of even the elite to idolize men who are making a lot of money, and assume that they know what they’re doing.

I especially like that part about the lure of money pulling people away form jobs that actually do things, like science. Which brings me to the solution for a "world gone madoff": changing peoples minds and values. Policy will not help us on this one. This is the thing that not many people are free to say, because in essence it amounts to saying that its the peoples fault. The populists won't tell you that because it undermines their entire ideology. The elected officials won't tell you that because they're afraid of losing votes and the elite won't say that because it will call attention to how elitist they are. But I have nothing to lose so I'll say it. Any Rand says never trust the person that asks you to sacrifice. So I won't use that exact word. But instead I'll stick with another expression, "you reap what you sow". If Americans live by the adage, "if you're so smart, why aren't you rich?" they are always going to value money over intelligence, substance or stability. And I'd like to think that those are the elements of a strong economy that can maintain its strength over decades. People made bad decisions that didn't look past the next fiscal quarter and other people made them CEOs. People went into financial services and took jobs knowing that they had no clue what they were doing and took salaries that were knowingly way too high to be reasonable (see the book "Liars Poker" for more on that). And still other People gave the former people the money to do that.

The country's economy is in tatters and nobody knows exactly how bad its going to get before it gets better. But everyone has an opinion on why we are here. Maybe, so far as the recovery is concerned it doesn't matter who's fault it is. But it certainly does matter who's fault it is to prevent it from happening again. And the answer is, every time you did something foolish with your money or made life decisions based on getting rich as quickly as possible and not on actually doing or creating something, its your fault.

Adam Walsh and repercussions good and bad.

Every now and again things happen that change the world. And often they can be relatively minor. This thought occurred to me when I saw that Adam Walsh's case was solved. I lived in South Florida 2 years after his abduction became national news. In fact, I lived in Miramar, Fl, which borders or is at least very close to Hollywood, Fl, the place where the abduction happened. Whats more, I have been in that mall and the Sears where it happened. Of course, I was only about 8 years old at the time.
I didn't realize it at the time, but this abduction had a huge impact on our (my generations) parents, specifically moms. Our generations parents could be considered the safety first generation. Our parents created safety belt and helmet laws (bicycle and motorcycle), M.A.D.D. and our parents were probably the first ones to teach their children to be afraid of strangers. My mom freaked out about that abduction and literally drilled into my head what to do if someone tried to abduct me. I can remember her telling me to kick and scream and yell and bite and any number of the nastiest things an 8 year old boy can do to hurt and adult and/or attract attention. The attention drawn to abductions and child safety by John Walsh (Adam's father) has been an amazing help. His TV show, America's Most Wanted, has been shown to save over 1000 children from abduction alone. And I read that his association and the work they've done may have saved 100,000 children since the early 80s.
I could never question the benefits of such organizations and awareness. But lets remember that nothing comes without a price. What are the consequences of a generation that is taught as young as they can remember to never trust a stranger? It has to sow the seeds of cynicism, bitterness, and contempt for our neighbors. I wish I could have known my fathers world where a 10 year old boy could cruise around Niagara Falls, NY with a bus pass and his parents were never concerned. I'd love to live in a world where a parent could see some other adult spanking their child and assume that the child deserved it and actually apologize instead of launching right into litigation and possibly criminal actions.
What happened in the last 20 years that such horrible things can happen to children like Adam Walsh, which seem to be a minor occurrence before? But more importantly, even though most of your neighbors share your values and are generally good people why would you not trust them to discipline your children? And why don't we think that spanking is a good idea anymore?
This all may seem disjointed but there's a connection between all these things to what is happening to our economy and possibly our entire society and way of life these days. I think that one can look at all symptoms and draw many conclusions. One may be in favor of increased policy or no policy or smarter policy. However, at some level you can't legislate human behavior, but it can change. Is it possible that the economic meltdown isn't a financial issue at its heart but instead the chickens coming home to roost from years of f-d up values?