The testicle donors

People don't do what they do because of the material reward they get for doing it. They do what they do because of who they are and the chance doing it gives them to be themselves.

Inequality places an undue emphasis on remuneration which distorts this natural arrangement. Some people can't afford to be themselves. Others are lured into inauthentic activities by greed.

On the one hand talent is squandered as people toil in low wage tasks unrelated to their potential and inclinations in order to fulfill pressing wants and needs that are entirely a consequence of corporate and governmental incompetence. At the other extreme we see mathematical genius wasted in quantitative analysis roles in the City, inspecting the entrails of the market to augur pointless prognostications, discerning patterns in the noise, deriving meaning from its clamour, with fear and greed the only instruments to promote unanimity.

There are few things more corrosive to society than the entirely false idea that the City should be the preferred destination for our brightest and best; that the individuals employed there somehow represent our most talented and intelligent sections of society. They are not the most intelligent. They are merely the most greedy, and that is not the same thing. That other choices are not as well rewarded financially does not make them less valuable. They are a priesthood of greed exercising a spurious authority, supported by teachers and doctors and engineers and countless others whose efforts enable society to function but whose efforts they do not acknowledge. Indeed they cannot, because to acknowledge those efforts would be to expose the antisocial character of their own motives. Instead prestige is conferred on a variety of occupations that contribute nothing to society and which offer no intrinsic fulfilment.

So inequality does not just cause poverty of circumstance. It causes poverty of ambition. Inequality misdirects our genius.

And we find the economy once again poised for financial crisis, and with those responsible insulated from all consequences of their incompetence, their bonus protected, their pensions secure.

So I propose that this time round we make some things clear in a way the parasites in the City understand. For every billion pounds bailout the banks require, they must forfeit one bollock, starting with the board. Cash in exchange for castration. Is that too much to ask?