To the Editor:
Re “Ward Three Morality,” by David Brooks (column, Feb. 3):
I am a sub-Ward Three person, in terms of income, with a Ph.D. I am also a Democrat. (As the column notes, “Ward Three is a section of Northwest Washington, D.C., where many Democratic staffers, regulators, journalists, lawyers, Obama aides and senior civil servants live.”)
I do not resent rich people. There are quite a few mega-wealthy people I even admire. I don’t care if they have 50 corporate jets or spend a million dollars on their wastepaper baskets. What I do resent are incompetent rich people with a sense of entitlement.
The Wall Street chief executives made bad decisions that ran their companies into the ground. They should not profit from their mistakes.
They were paid vast sums of money because they were supposed to be smarter and work harder than anyone else. They turned out to be dumb and lazy.
If I’m dumb and lazy, I get fired. If they’re dumb and lazy, they get bonuses. That’s what I resent.
Margie Parko
Crossville, Tenn., Feb. 3, 2009
Note from KBJ: What is stopping Margie Parko from becoming a Wall Street chief executive? If she wants to be dumb and lazy and still get bonuses, she should change careers. I am sick to death of people going into a line of work and then complaining about it.
