Enron

Son of Jeffrey Skilling found dead

This is breaking news, so nobody knows the cause of death yet, just that some prescription medications were found by his bed.

But extrapolating, even to an accidental overdose, this tragedy continues to ruin lives.

Still, Enron was nothing more than the run-up to the crash of 09. The same behavior that took down Enron is what took down the entire global economy. 

We have, at some point, passed from an era of looking at what is right and wrong to looking at what is illegal, and assuming everything else is OK.

"Everything is permitted, except that which is explicitly forbidden."

As free as that sounds, freedom comes with responsibilities. Among those responsibilities is to grasp the idea that if everything that is "legal" is "right" then the laws eventually drift toward the opposite:

"Everything is forbidden, except that which is explicitly permitted."

Ironically, the U.S. Constitution was written this way for the government's powers. That is the whole concept of enumerated powers. It was an acknowledgment that government power tends to accumulate over time (which has been the case anyway, even if slowed somewhat by constitutional restrictions).

I wish I had a solution. Perhaps I am too idealistic.

Yes, this wandered off the original topic.

I'm like that.