

This is Why I Hate Wall Street People - philk
http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2010/05/12/this-is-why-i-hate-wall-street-people.aspx

======
shrnky
Make sure you read the original article here:
[http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YWE4YmE2YjhmMzgzODJ...](http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YWE4YmE2YjhmMzgzODJjMTY3NTA1NDJjNGZjMmE4M2Q)

Having nothing to do with Wall Street myself, I actually agreed with the theme
of the anonymous letter.

The underlying theme being:

"We are super competitive and you are not. What do you think will happen if we
are forced to compete against you?"

I agree with Motely Fool that they have a skewed picture of the average
american and could use some humility, but their original point still remains.

~~~
cstross
"We are super competitive and you are not. What do you think will happen if we
are forced to compete against you?"

Counterpoint: How many jobs have _you_ held that were purely competitive,
rather than _cooperative_?

Pure competition may work for high level athletes in individual sports, or for
sociopaths trying to claw their way to the top of a dogpile of thieves -- in
zero-sum or negative-sum games where the only thing that counts is winning.

But in most walks of life, being too competitive is a liability.

Real life is seldom a zero-sum game, and the serious business of creating
wealth and adding value is usually a _positive_ -sum game. Cooperation rules,
and the Wall Street Wanker's anonymous nastygram is merely the bitter
complaint of a sociopath in an industry that's long overdue for external
regulation.

~~~
pasbesoin
Yes.

I haven't read the Motley Fool post yet, but I read some days back the email
I'm sure it's referring to.

Dear WS prick: The rest of the world realizes you have to cooperate in order
to get substantive things done, e.g. running a modern society. Who do you
think built and supplies your green-tinted ivory tower?

With the attitude expressed in the email, that blowhard wouldn't last a week
in the positions he (I'm presuming) describes.

