Lots of interesting feedback from readers on Tuesday's column about 25 years of hoarding by the corporate rich (see below). The next day, that long whine by AIG executive Jake DeSantis appeared on the Times' op-ed page, proving my point. This fool is completely oblivious to the fact that he wouldn't be in position to earn a million-dollar bonus were it not for taxpayers. And if he deigns to send it anywhere, in his attempt at martyrdom, DeSantis's $742,006.40, after taxes, should come right back to the U.S. Treasury.

One reader sent a memo from a corporate office showing severance compensation for a CEO of a large retail chain at more than $100 million, the news of this getting around just as employes learned the company would no longer be contributing to their pension fund.

"You nailed it!" writes Charles Ellis. "For years now I’ve been telling people that the plutocrats are going to be grabbing as much as they can because they know that the lights will be going out soon, and finally someone has had the courage and good sense to print that notion in the paper! Now if we could just figure out a way to get all that $$$ back from the Cayman Islands."

"Anyone with sense," writes a reader from Cockeysville, Baltimore County, "could see that stocks and everything else were overvalued by Wall Street during the past two decades, particularly when you compared total financial 'assets' to the amount of natural resources that are left. Divide those resources by a booming worldwide population (especially in developing supernations like China and India) and you end up with consistently declining returns. So, how do you amass wealth when the odds are against you? You create fake wealth by developing bubbles and by creating algorithmic investment devices that are bunk. You skim off what you can from the contributions of regular people and the less-rich, then plead ignorance and 'bad luck' when the house of cards falls. Then, you ask the government to prop you up so you don't lose anything and try to continue the charade for as long as possible. If you're at the top, you concoct (with the help of duped or co-opted board members) a severance deal, then tell the people you've bilked out of pension money that you won't even bother with them anymore. This is just the beginning of this, Dan. The Cold War killed Marx and the environmental endgame has killed Adam Smith. All we're left with is humanity and the worst impulses of some of it. How to change that? After reading all this, you probably need a laugh. Check this out."

"The rich don't need a reason to hoard," writes Patrick Lackey. "They always have hoarded and always will. What they want is more, then still more. They have acquired a greater share of the nation's net worth not because fear drove them to try harder than before but because changing conditions enabled them to grab more. Tax and inheritance laws were changed in their favor. New methods of production, notably robots, have worked to the advantage of owners and disadvantage of workers. Unions have declined, leaving the individual worker to beg for just wages and benefits. Good luck.
   " A study showed that people of all incomes believe they would be set for life if their incomes doubled. That, of course, went for people earning $20,000 annually or $200,000 annually. (I'm sure, though with my memory I never should be, that the study is mentioned in Vance Packard's The Ultra Rich: How Much Is Too Much? or Lewis H. Lapham's Money and Class in America.) I would be happy, and certainly relieved, if my retirement income doubled, but I doubt that the richest Americans think in terms of sufficiency. The word "enough" is foreign to them.
   "The confusing part to me is that I was able to retire because greedy risk-taking bastards worked their tails off to create new companies and new wealth, thereby inflating my 401k. Yes, some money did trickle down to me. The new problem is that the trickle-down pipes are clogged, leaving a greater portion of wealth stuck at the top. Our consumer-driven economy would be far better off if those pipes were unclogged. After all, the richest guy on earth is going to buy only so many refrigerators. Spread the money around and refrigerator sales will shoot up.   
   " Obama is the first president in decades to truly understand the value of the middle class. He knows that what's good for the richest guys in the nation is not necessarily good for Jane or Joe Blow. He also knows that if Jane and Joe go down, so goes the nation, that a country's health is not judged by the wealth of its top 1 percent. Actually, a nation's prisons say more about it than does the immensity of the yachts at the pier.
    "Oh, and good morning. Enjoyed your column, though I disagreed with it. Can you please do something about the cold? It's supposed to be spring. I blame the Republicans."

"Your Article Hit Home pretty hard," writes Ken Boyer of Edgewood, Md., "since we all know if something happen the Government will be saved, so will some of the Brightest Minds in the World while the rest of the Poor sorry souls will be expendable! That's happening right now as Wall Street and the Big Business get the Bailouts, and write offs for toxic Loans but the General Public gets nothing but more Loans and Personnel debt, High unemployment, Homlessness and Poverty with no way out of the mess for  this which the Consumer was never responsible for
in the first place but as History repeats itself the Poor and Middle
Classes  always pay the ultimate price for the Greed and Corruption of
the Rich!   Won't wonders never cease?

"I think the Government show wipe the entire  Financial Markets clean and
allow the Public to clear it's debts so we can all all start over with
an Honest conscience but if  the President did that Wall Street would
stroke out and Crash dive guaranteeing us another "Depression" Instead
the Government is allowing these same Idiots (Private Investors) to help
lead the way while the Average American suffers the Burden and the Pain
of this Economic Mess!  The Foxes are truly raiding and robbing the
Henhouse like never before!

"I'm surprised  Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, has done Nothing to
STOP Foreclosesures in this Nation by People who have Lost their Jobs,
You can bet the Tent Cities will be getting Bigger and Bigger in the
weeks and Months to come! I am Disappointed to see this Administration
is so Heartless since so many believed that change was coming to America
for the better. But as we see it is Nothing but Business as usual for
Big Business and Wall Street with NO Real CHANGE to improve the System
and make it fair for all!"

"You have managed to put in writing what most of us working class
'suckers' painfully know," writes Ken Smith of Ocean Pines, Md. "The levels of self-centered, self-serving, self-interested greedy hoarding by the rich have accelerated to the point that their actions will CAUSE the 'apocalypse' you predict.
Thanks for having the guts to put it in print.  You must not be very
popular among corporate managers in Baltimore.  You're probably not on a
first-name basis with any of them. I'll bet you don't get invited to
their homes or get-togethers.  Good for you!"