Who needs a unifying theme anyway?

In 1978, it might have been economically feasible and perfectly legal for an executive to award himself a multimillion-dollar bonus while shedding 40 percent of his workforce and requiring the survivors to take annual furloughs without pay. But no executive would have wanted the shame and outrage that followed –– any more than an executive today would want to be quoted using a racial slur or photographed with a paid escort. These days it is hard to open the paper without reading stories about grotesque overcompensation at the top and widespread hardship below. Getting rid of a taboo is easier than establishing one, and once a prohibition erodes, it can never be restored in quite the same way. As Leo Tolstoy wrote, “There are no conditions of life to which a man cannot become accustomed, especially if he sees them accepted by everyone around him.