Trust in Generations

[JLak]

I think that it's interesting to note the level of entrenched interest of top-level government officials. Most of this 7-figure compensation is for sitting on corporate boards or other minimal duty non-work, often fulfilling many positions at once. You're not going to convince me that these people are so brilliant that their ideas at quarterly board meetings are worth that much.
Here's an example:

"National security adviser James L. Jones earned $1.1 million last year in board compensation from five corporations, including defense contractor Boeing, in addition to $900,000 in salary from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and hundreds of thousands more in consulting fees." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 03732.html

So how could an honest person become worth so much for doing so little. I used to work in the night club industry and these corporate board members are like "Big Lou". "Protection" is expensive.

We've heard so many times the need for 'change' in a broken system, but the change agents are incented only by more of the same. It reminds me of China's melamine problem. Once a single case is discovered, the practice doesn't stop, it goes mainstream. Over the years it's clearly become nearly impossible to make it to the upper echelons of big industry or big government with integrity intact. The message to hopefuls is clearly that integrity doesn't pay and we can only assume that the problem will get worse as it is discovered.

I don't believe that this is a partisan problem, but I do believe that it is a generational problem. A small handful of corrupt Boomers have done very well for themselves and set the stage for X-ers to perfect the system. What about Millennials? Will they be worse? From what I've seen, kids today are taught to get ahead in school by any means necessary. There is no trust of adults. There are no role models above suspicion. There are no incentives for honesty except peace of mind.

I can't imagine anything short of near-total disaster that would revive the old-fashioned belief in integrity.