I received a fantastic job offer from one of the TBTF banks (and by TBTF, I mean absolute rotten to the core fractional reserve fraud). The salary is mind-blowing and the position unrelated to the financial segment of the bank.
Is this a faustian bargain? I can’t help but feel as if I would be a co-conspirator and actively enabling it’s criminal actions…
I will only allow you to take this job on one condition: you must secretly become a gold bug and a prepper. Take the enormous salary and turn it into a bunker full of gold, ammunition, pemmican, and spinach.
While that is an astute recommendation, no satire please.
Take the job, use the salary as you will (and deduct as much tax as possible). You are not a co-conspirator with criminals, you are a co-conspirator with libertarians, infiltrating that organization and improving the standing of libertarians in the world by taking on such a position.
Personally I wouldn’t take it. This is the price of having principles, you must live by them.
qperl,
You might find this essay by Rothbard to be relevant.
It is not the job that could be/is unethical but your future actions that could be/are unethical. I would not be unethical if I was working for a bank that was purchased and kept my job, or if I used the TBTF bank for a loan so there is nothing unethical about you working there especially in an office that is not involved with lobbying the Fed or other government agency.
Very well, I do agree that I should have been less flippant towards a new person to the forums. Please accept my apologies, and welcome to the LVMI forums. Yours is a frequent dilemma for libertarians, and it has been addressed in print before. Please see tne link posted above by gotlucky. Ayn Rand herself made the distinction that I feel is relevant, if you feel that your job, and the system which you are part of is good and correct, then you dont deserve any of it. But if you consider it as an opportunity to recoup a fraction of the wealth that a tyrannical, murderous institution has extorted from you and destroyed, then have at it. I also agree with Aristippus’ comments and will add my own: being on the inside can allow you to work to change people’s minds in subtle ways, you could subtly introduce value-free analysis of bank policies, and then spin it as a good thing for you and the guy youre talking to, cause you both work for the bank.
The state has made it somewhat difficult not to accidentally violate your ethics with all the drugs and monsanto and whatever. Hell, Bush was probably on MDMA when he signed off on 9/11 and the other sides who made it possible were probably drugged against their wishes to a degree too. Clinton probably wanted to punch the TV screen because he was so unhappy that he had signed off on the OKC bombing or had allowed it to happen.
It’s a scary leviathan state out there and it’s about to self destruct… I don’t want to be a part of it… in any way, shape, or form… ever.
Simply put: No it is not.
I would like to hear your reasons, Jargon, and perhaps question some of them for the benefit of our new friend. Are you amenable to such an activity? Of course I understand if you would rather not.
If you hadn’t asked so nicely I might’ve just quoted Ron Swanson: “Honor: if you need it defined, you don’t have it.”
But since you did: I don’t know if I can prove that it is unethical to work for a “TBTF” bank, but I know that I never would. Why is that? Because these institutions place politicians in power who are then subservient to them, infiltrate regulatory agencies and rig the markets in their favor and keep inflationary policy and state growth in place as it is profitable for them. They ensnare 3rd world countries into disadvantageous credit agreements which quickly transform the country into debt-slaves, after which resources are given over to multinational corporations. They prey upon indebtedness and seek to cultivate it everywhere. With the advent of consumer-credit-spending as a lifestyle, generations of people are now net debtors, shortening the capital structure. This is a direct result of the regulated fiat money systems and rigged trade agreements imposed by politicians bought out by bankers. One might characterize my opinion on this matter with the concept developed by Hoppe in his article on Austrian Class Theory, which states more or less that monopolists are criminals. Moreover, they are the top of the political process, despite the belief in the presidency and congress. Working for them is joining their side, unless you plan on rising through the ranks, playing the Severus Snape game and snapping photos of controversial documents and then releasing them. But if you’re just going to work for them, then you’re helping them to profit and enslave the rest of us.
None of this is to say that Banking per se is illegitimate. But the banking industry today, as is much of business activity is inextricable from the currents of oligarchical corporatism. Banking is the most terribly intertwined of all of these, as the very growth of the state requires banks to finance it. That’s my 2c.
I agree with that, more or less. But if the OP doesnt take the job, someone else will. And that someone else wont be a closet libertarian. I think theres more good things people can do than just espionage and sabotage. What do you think of Hans Munch, the good man of auschwitz?
Thank you for this. Very interesting.