I can't speak for capitalists or top managers for whom too much is not enough, but I have worked with big firm lawyers who have millions, make millions, and still work 3500 hours a year. They don't do it solely for money. They wouldn't do it without the money, but they do it for power, prestige (the money is in large part a prestige marker, a way of keeping score), excitement, a sense of purpose, a place in the community (the money matters here too), and a sense of accomplishment -- of doing a very hard job very well. I suspect that big time capitalists and managers are the same. Alas, the US auto execs do a hard job not very well. (A few years ago I replaced my Buick with another Toyota.)
Did any of you see The Devil Wears Prada? I thought that in playing Miranda Priestly, Meryl Streep gave a really impressive psychological portrait of the complex motivations of a top executive. Streep says she based her character on top male executives she knew, not on Anna Wintour, the Vogue EIC who is the nominal basis of the story. I have no idea what Anna Wintour is like, but I know lots of senior partners at big law firms who are just like Miranda Priestly, except the women senior partners tend not to be as nice as she is in the movie. The character is sympathetically portrayed, actually; Priestly is mainly a driven woman married to her job who just wants things done fast and right and has no time to waste.
--- Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
>
> On May 16, 2007, at 12:12 PM, Charles Brown wrote:
>
> > Why should the top exec's care or exert themselves
> ? They are pretty
> > much financially set for life personally. They
> can coast, rather than
> > march.
>
> Because they could make a shitload more money if the
> stock were
> rising 10-20% a year! To your average capitalist,
> being "set for
> life" isn't enough. You've got to be set for the
> hereafter too.
>
> Doug
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