The Bright Side of Financial Doom
Multiply that anecdote by several thousand and you begin to see the possible upside of the collapse of our financial system. The traders, bankers, quants, MBA’s and other assorted money conjurers who comprise the now virtually defunct financial services sector are no dummies. These are, for the most part, college educated people smart enough to know how to get the fattest slices of the economic pie. They (some of them anyway) were smart enough to squirrel away enough of their “earnings” (and I use the term loosely) so as to immunize themselves against the eventual collapse of their way of life. They’ll be fine–even though some of them clearly shouldn’t be.
Now, imagine what this corps of smart people could do if they no longer had that particular outlet for their talents. Imagine the small businesses they could start, the things they could invent, the worthwhile businesses they could fund. Imagine the perplexing scientific questions they could help answer.
My sincere hope is that whatever benefits ultimately derive from the ever-expanding bailout (and, to be clear, I am not convinced there will be any) we do not return to a situation where the clearest path to quick wealth for college graduates is in money-conjuring. There’s no romance in that. There’s no nobility in it either. And now, thankfully, there’s no money in it. I hope it stays that way because I’d rather have a sentient robot, an affordable electric car, or solar energy.