Moral behavior prevents 'bubbles'

Upton Sinclair said that it is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it. This is at the heart of financial bubbles ["Bubble trouble," Opinion, May 22]. Bubbles enrich and thereby empower, and it is an unfortunate fact of life that too many of our politicians are bought. Our politicians make laws favorable to the already rich, and government selectively enforces our laws.

Until we return to honoring constructive activity and moral behavior, until we contain greed and sloth, and until we end campaign-finance bribery, we are helpless against financial bubbles.

"I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today,'' Popeye's friend Wimpy used to say. It is so easy to promise future payments for cash today. This is what out politicians do. Debt and taxes enslave our future.

The answer might be bubble study in business school, but then is probably too late. The answer instead may be studying virtue at much younger ages, as part of public education -- a slow process, which won't help us with the immediate problem.

Joseph Mirzoeff, Port Washington