Financial Agents & Private Accounts:
by Rich III on Washington Monthly Blog: 1/5/2005

2)Consider This...
The utter venality of the financial services industry. Ask yourself: do you know anyone who, in considering what career to pursue, was deciding between nursing and investment banking? How about teaching and investment banking? Social work and investment banking? In general, nursing, teaching, and social work attract people to want to help other people, while investment banking attracts people who want to make money. And what goes for investment bankers goes for the lower orders of financial services as well (brokers, portfolio managers, sales people, personal adivisers, etc.). These folks, god bless 'em, don't give a damn about you or anyone else; they want to make money. If you set up a system which makes it relatively easy for them to make money by lying, cheating, and stealing, then they will happily make money lying, cheating, and stealing. Reforms that fail to acknowledge this reality will always prove more trouble than they are worth.