I was reading the Guardian last week and came across this quote describing the causes of the collapse of the Icelandic Banks.
Twenty years ago, a world financial crisis might barely have touched Iceland. Today though, it is, in the economists' phrase, globally engaged. And while by a cruel irony it never even touched the toxic sub-prime stuff that proved everyone else's downfall, it is still the meltdown in microcosm: driven, like the rest of us, to the brink of ruin by profit-hungry risk-takers who had closed their eyes to the dangers of what they were doing.
And when I picture the current credit crunch I see the egotistical, narcissists of 'The Apprentice', people for who right and wrong have no meaning and for whom caution is despised as a tool of the weak. They know with such certainty that they are right that they are ready to bully, cheat and lie in order to get their way. In management terms I guess this would be described as "Having the drive to realise your vision." Criticism has no valuable function in this world, it is seen as wholly negative.
Where, of course, criticism is absolutely vital. Perfectly illustrated by the Challenger Disaster in 1986 where NASA management dismissed the safety concerns of the engineers working on the Space Shuttle as the carping of unimportant people who were insufficiently positive.
As the great Richard Feymnan said after the inevitable accident, "For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled."
If you value simply peoples ambition and drive and remove any sense of right or wrong then it is not surprising that you encourage unscrupulous risk takers who are quite happy to play fast and loose with other peoples money. Compounded, of course, by a system that ties bonuses to sales but with out any accountability. "Who cares if they can't pay the money back, I've made my sale, now where's my bonus?"
Perhaps we just need some institutions to be cautious and reliable. Like foundations to a house they are not glamorous and sexy but absolutely necessary all the same. In this spirit, perhaps banks would have done a better job for us all if their managers were a little more like Captain Mainwaring and an awful lot less like Gordon Gecko.
menhir
In the first instance, I don't completely agree with your last personalised sentiment, but there is merit in the wider discussion.
At least two, (probably three) generations have been encouraged worship Mammon, debt was good, risk taking was reality. It was the American dream and as it was the most powerful country and the one many Western countries were heavily indebted to, there was little choice but to follow the global patterns and trends they designed. Individually you could tinker, globally you could not be sheltered. The dream soured with the lack of regulation, quality control therefore, a lack of standards and a drive onward to the inevitable meltdown. Your example of Challenger in 1986 is, as it sadly turns out, a good metaphor.
We were all encouraged to live with the free market systems from 1987 and what the market would provide. We were denigrated if we didn't. Reality and genuine survival skills were, discouraged, they were less important than living for the day,come what may.