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Vanity Fair (Shnayerson, “Profiles in Panic,” Jan ’09) neatly encapsulates a particular and pervasive kind of misanthropy:

One former Lehman executive in her 40s stood in her vast clothes closet not long ago, talking to her personal stylist. On shelves around her were at least 10 designer handbags that had cost her anywhere from $6,000 to $10,000 each.

“I don’t know what to do,” she said. “I guess I’ll have to get rid of the maid.”

Why not sell a few of those bags?, the stylist thought, but didn’t say so.

“Well,” the executive said after a moment, “I guess I’ll cut her from five days a week to four.”

No economic theories about wages and pensions (as if the latter still existed in any meaningful sense) can adequately explain the profound hatred for paying workers, or the resulting sadism, that drives so much business logic. What can?