Wall Street's undertow: drugs and anxiety

[DuaneBidoux]

Source: Reuters

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street's push for record profits is ruining careers, tearing apart families and keeping drug dealers busy, mental health experts say...



Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/reutersEdge/idUSN1629133120070618?src=061807_1359_INVESTING_comment_n_analysis

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Years ago with a friend I commented that we were heading toward an age of "savage capitalism." I think this is what I was feeling (I was a management investment consultant at the time (and it wasn't nearly as bad then as now!)).

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

1. Let them burn down.

I shall laugh and point derisively.

I have a friend who walked away from UBS Warburg, because of shit like this.

[lovuian]

2. Corporate America is having its last gasp

can't you hear the death rattles

[Demeter]

3. No Tears for the Soulless

If they want hell, they can afford it. If they don't want hell, they should have enough squirrelled away to walk away from Wall Street. Tough choice, isn't it? At least these princes HAVE choices. They have managed to deprive most everyone else of choices, you will note.

[DuaneBidoux]

6. Very few people, even savage capitalists, are soulless.

They may be wandering (or wondering) souls or, more likely, they are un-evolved souls. Few humans are beyond redemption.

Some of the nicest people I have ever known are like these people they talk about. But, they have never had the chance to develop perspective. To me it's like when you ask a small child which of two glasses has more water and without reflection they say the taller glass. At some point however that child looks at those two glasses and quickly and easily sees the truth. I was like that child at one point, even into my 30s. If I had been treated as soulless by some arrogant progressive I would likely dug in my heels and continued to insist that the taller glass did have more water regardless of its diameter.

These individuals are not the enemy. They are, as much as anyone, victims of a system run amok.

[Wilms]

8. Great post.

That, or I'm in a forgiving mood.

[Demeter]

11. Having Met A Few of These Savage Capitalists, I Can Attest

they are narcissistic psychopaths, the very definition of soullessness. They are the crowning achievement of this "system gone wrong" and they are rewarded for it.

This is why our country is dying. Why the GOP is dead. And why American business is deteriorating on a quarterly basis.

[NashVegas]

21. They Are Not Victims, They Are Complicit, They Are Enablers

They can walk away at any time.

[CatholicEdHead]

4. Gambling addiction taken to a new level

That and some subconsciouses of people are catching up to them as to the end all of their daily actions on society. Profits do not come free.

[kurth]

5. Let 'em eat coke

[smirkymonkey]

7. It's not just Wall Street - most "for profit" companies are out of

control. My company is just getting worse and worse - the CEO is insatiable for increasing profit margins and we just keep working harder and harder, longer and longer hours and it never lets up. People are turning into nervous wrecks and formerly kind, decent individuals have suddenly turned into bastards.

I am getting to the point where I am constantly sick to my stomach, nauseated, anxious, and I find that I don't even know how to relax anymore. I have no personal life left and my health going downhill (I have always been very healthy, and now I am constantly going to the doctor for mysterious - probably stress related - ailments). And I'm not even getting the worst of it. There are others who are under a lot more pressure to get the numbers than I am and it's just a matter of time before all hell breaks loose.

The plan is to get the company (it's a new company) primed for takeover by a larger company - at which point people at my level will probably get the shaft anyway. Sometimes I wish I could just chuck it all and live off the land.

[Alexia Wheaton]

9. Private firms have the advantage of not having to listen...

to stock holders cry for more money everyday.
If these people can't take it anymore, they should quit their jobs and take the money they have, invest it and spend it wisely.

[smirkymonkey]

13. Some of us are just the worker bees and are just making enough

money to live on and put into our 401K's - I have a tiny bit of savings left over in case of an emergency, but most of us can't just "quit our jobs and live off the money we have". It wouldn't get us past 3 months.

It's easy for a lot of people to say "Oh, just quit" but when you don't have a lot of money set aside and are so stressed and busy you barely have time to think, let alone look for another job or plan another lifestyle, it's not quite as simple as it sounds.

[AX10]

16. I think she was refering to the workers on wall street who make...

alot of money. They could get other jobs outside of Wall Street, at banks for example.

[htuttle]

15. Even publically held companies don't need to listen to stockholders anymore

When was the last time you heard of a successful 'stockholder rebellion'? The controlling shares are almost always in the hands of the same institutional investors that they play golf with on weekends. As long as the CEO greases the palms of the board members, they don't listen to anybody else.

[AX10]

17. It is those institutional investors who demand more and more profits...

each quarter.

[htuttle]

18. That's just it

They demand more profits each quarter without regard to any longer term concerns, because they know they'll get the insider tipoff to pull their money out when it's time.

It's all just looting in nice suits and Italian shoes...

[Demeter]

10. You Can Chuck It All--I Did

When I ended up being offered psychotropic drugs just so I could stand to go to work, I decided it wasn't me, but the job that needed to go. It isn't worth it. It isn't worth it to lie for money, to defraud for money, to cheat for money, to hurt innocent people for profit. This is fundamental to what it means to be social, a member of a group, a healthy animal, a law-abiding, moral citizen.

It isn't worth it to work yourself to death for someone else's profit. If you don't even have stock or stock options, what do you think you are accomplishing? Today, like never before, people need a healthy sense of self-preservation.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

12. Remember that old commercial... "I do more coke, so I can work longer, so I can earn more

so I can do more coke"

That guy always looked like a stockbroker to me. :shrug:

[htuttle]

14. Elevator! Going up!

In the gleaming corridors of the 51st floor
The money can be made if you really want some more
Executive decision-a clinical precision
Jumping from the windows-filled with indecision

I get good advice from the advertising world
Treat me nice says the party girl
Koke adds life where there isn't any
So freeze, man, freeze

It's the pause that refreshes in the corridors of power
When top men need a top up long before the happy hour
Your snakeskin suit and your alligator boot
You won't need a launderette, you can send them to the vet!

I get my advice from the advertising world
Treat me nice says the party girl
Koke adds life where there isn't any
So freeze, man, freeze

Koka Kola advertising and kokaine
Strolling down the Broadway in the rain
Neon light sign says it
I read it in the paper-they're crazy!
Suit your life, maybe so
In the White House-I know
All Over Berlin (they've been doing it for years)
And in Manhattan!

Coming through the door is a snub nose 44
What the barrel can't snort it can spatter on the floor
Your eyeballs feel like pinballs
And your tongue feels like a fish
You're leaping from the windows-saying don't
Ayaiiiiirrrghhh! *@!!*@!!*!
Don't give me none of this!

I get good advice from the advertising world
Treat me nice says the party girl
Koke adds life where there isn't any
So freeze, man, freeze
Hit the deck!
-- The Clash, Koka Kola

[SOS]

19. They inflict anxiety and suffering on working people.

Are we supposed to care that they do coke and their wives hate them?

:nopity:

[ender]

20. suffering is terrible no matter who...

is suffering.

money isn't everything, and they wouldnt be doing coke and hookers if they weren't suffering.

[Jed Dilligan]

22. Nice to know the pigfuckers are tearing themselves up

as well as the rest of us. I hope their noses rot the fuck off.

[Blue_Tires]

23. hell, i'll trade places with them

and they can take my life, filled with scrambling for part-time work and zero health care

[OldschoolDem]

24. My father worked for GE Health care for many many years

and there would be periods where he worked 70-80 hour weeks just to get a project done. It really is the survival of the fittest in the corporate world.

[TrogL]

25. Sounds like the Raygun years

greed and coke