Indeed Lay's testimony does point out exactly what is wrong with so much of America. We are living beyond our means and are so addicted to the lifestyle that there's no way to stop it. I am more and more convinced that a new depression is on the way. We can't sustain this standard of living forever by generating more and more debt. When the depression does hit it will not be pretty at all. Once all of those ARM's start adjusting up, the people who bought real estate they couldn't afford are going to go into foreclosure and that will just be the beginning.

No, you will never see the NY Times question the divine right of folks to desire those Prada shoes or that CPW apartment for only $16,000,000. It is correct and a proof of our freedom to want and chase a huge personal fortune, even though most often it has come from skimming the meager fat from millions of worker bees. With the Times, you can pity the poor and still avert your eyes while you shtup them.

Lay's idiot comment displays, among other things the truth of Hardin's Tragedy of the Commons. Look it up on the web.

We all should start thinking like socialists. Give up some things to get some things. Like peace and security. Is it really worth burning up the last of the ancient sunshine in SUV's to risk nuclear war with China over the last of the oil? Is it? No sane person would say so, but that's exactly what we're doing in the United States, as a society.

A society that conserved much more, consumed much less, and shared more equally, would be happier, healthier, more productive, safer, and more secure for the long haul.

But, apparently, Americans believe the earth is not round. Apparently they believe the earth is infinite. Last I looked, that was wrong.

Americans are encouraged in this by politicians and corporate heads who profit by this delusion.

Those same people know full well it's a delusion, but they figure they're rich and powerful enough that they will avoid the price of this particular irrationality that they encourage for their own gain.

Americans are wrong about many things. And, as Mr. Leonard says, so is the rest of the world. And we will all pay for this terrible delusion, in a lot more than money, too, by-and-by.

In your commentary, you write,

"It's a little late in the game, after all, to try and convince anyone, anywhere, that the 'good things in life' don't automatically equate to a private jet in every garage and regular shopping sprees on the Champs-Elysées."

Fortunately, most people don't have to be convinced.

In my experience, the vast majority of human beings, including those residing in America, do not "dream" of owning three hundred room mansions with gold-plated fixtures. Defining the "American Dream" in this fashion is just another way for sociopaths to rationalize sociopathic (and usually criminal) behavior. It allows them to say, "Hey, I'm just like you, only I've succeeded in doing what you and all other Americans only dream of doing. My only crime is being a successful American and, if anyone says otherwise, they must be motivated by sour grapes and envy."

Perhaps it's time for Americans to take back the definition of the "American Dream" from the sociopaths we allow to sit atop our larger public and private institutions. Speaking for my personal slice of America, when I see people paying themselves millions of dollars a year from corporate coffers AND demanding a free residence, AND demanding a free vacation home, AND demanding free meals, AND demanding free maid service, AND demanding free front row tickets to sporting events, I don't think of the "American Dream." I think of a form of mental and spititual illness that requires serious and immediate treatment.

The only people whose input is at all relevant to management compensation are the shareholders of the firm in question. If you want to tip the waitress at the diner $200, your call. I would never presume to criticize your decision. Why, then, do you feel it's your place to criticize how much the shareholders of a company decide to pay that company's management?

Just a guy , if you think for a moment that it is the ordinary shareholder who decides what the Executives of a Company get paid, think again. The board decides that item, and who sits on the board? Buddies from other companies, some of whom on 20 and more boards, and getting paid big money for that too.The corporate culture seems to be based on the the old song: Anything you can do, I can do better. And the Sociopath's who seem to need billions to show there counterparts how well off they are, will eventually die like everyone else and low and behold cannot take their ill gotten wealth with them.The majority of people live quite well, thank you, with a lot less, and millions live in misery without health insurance, about 500 000 veterans from WW II up to and including the Irak disaster live on the street uncared for by the Government or the tycoons with the billions they "earned" supplying the arms. And you know what? They also will die, and their funerals will not be overblown affairs. The Kennyboys, old friends of the Bushes, even though GW will now deny that he even knew his largest election fund contributor, will babble on about the American dream, Gimme Gimme and gimme more, will rot in their graves like all of us. But still they will pretend to be good Christian (thieves that is).