When the economic tide is lifting all ships--big yachts as well as dinghies--we don't hear much about class warfare in America. Nothing binds us like collective, albeit relative, success. As long as the vast middle class is prospering, it doesn't really care if the upper class is prospering even more.

But now that the middle is suffering, the inter-class dynamic has shifted radically. We raise this issue after reading an interesting CNNMoney article on the Occupy Wall Street movement, and their protestors' views on Goldman Sachs' salaries. Goldman Sachs has set aside $10 billion for employee compensation so far this year. That's roughly $292,000 per employee, down $78,000 from last year. But there is no sympathy among the protestors.

"I think it's ridiculous. I don't know how else to say it. It's ridiculous."

Many of you will see $292,000 as anything but exorbitant, especially when it represents a decrease from 2010. But we cannot be blind to the Occupy Wall Street view. The bottom line is that Wall Street is built around the idea of making as much money as humanly possible. That's a virtue on Wall Street, the moral assumption being that as people go about making money they are doing good by making the economy more efficient. The idea of "greed" as a virtue is out of vogue right now, except by extreme objectivists.

In any case, if history has taught us anything, it's that this philosophical gap will narrow once the ships start rising again. We can only hope they do soon.

For more:
- here's the article

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