The latest scandal in the banking industry has my shaking my head. For those who haven’t heard, Wells Fargo is in it deep because they basically set quotas for the number of add on services that employees were required to sell. This was pushing people to go above and beyond normal circumstances, opening accounts without permission, forging signatures, pressuring family and all sorts of fun stuff. So I have a simple question: Does money make people evil?
Still In The Cycle Of Corruption
Basically, more awful behaviors in an industry that has the stench of a lot of awful behaviors. I mean, nobody has forgotten the subprime mortgage crisis, right?
It just got me to wondering why this stuff keeps happening. I’ve heard that we should break up the banks to make them smaller, or taking certain functions (like investing) away from banks. All sorts of things, but I’m not sure any of that would work.
Does Money Make People Evil?
Maybe it’s not how big the banks have gotten. Perhaps it’s simpler than that. It could be that people turn evil when they’re around money too long.
After all, money makes people do crazy things. Even the Bible is full of stories of those who lost their way because of a greed for money.
Money makes people steal. Cheat. Lie. Beg. It brings out jealousy. Anger. Rage. Sadness. It makes people kill themselves. Or others. Or both.
And all of these things come out for people who don’t work with money. They just deal with it on the periphery.
But what about those who work around it? Every day. They’re consumed with it. Every spreadsheet they open. Each figure on a screen. Every conference call they make. Basically, everything they touch involves money. Money, money money.
Could Banking Be A Short Term Career?
Maybe bankers should just work in the industry for so long and then be forced to go do something else like farm or build roads or sell clothes or something else. Anything else that doesn’t drive them crazy as it seems working around it seems to do.
Obviously this is just a crazy suggestion, but I wonder if my underlying thought is correct. Maybe money is like the sun or alcohol or drugs, all OK in moderation, but harmful, even deadly, if exposed to too much.
What do you think, readers? Is there any real way to stop the next story that involves greed and corruption in the financial industry or are we doomed simply because of what money does to our minds? Let me know what you think in the comments below.
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