Parasitism is the key, isn't it--it is one thing to make fair exchange on the use of capital, and quite another to suck the blood out of others. It is ugly whether it is found in high places like corporate office, or in low places like welfare offices. I've seen people in both places who were NOT parasitic, and also those who were.

Another facet is that if one is entrusted with the management of a group, small or large, his scope of ethics has to grow beyond his own point of view. What is good for Numero Uno but harms the future of the group as a whole is no longer acceptable as an ethics equation. And if the corporation benefits from harming the commuinity around it, the consequences will similarly blow up in the company's face sooner or later.

And those who cannot think through consequences often miss the fact that consequences in the larger arena that are ignored come back to bite you in the ass. If the executives at Bear Sterns had had the ethical sense to understand why aggressive pursuit of rotten loans and turning them into rotten bundles was a form of pollution of the larger community, the company would not have folded in shame.


A