@SC handle

If consumers buy stuff with money they don't have, it's primarily their fault. The bankers' fault is that of lending money to people who they know have a high probability of not being to pay that loan back. Yes, that is mostly a failure of regulation, but the bankers have (a) consistently and continuously lobbied for less regulation and for basically being allowed to do as they please and (b) fail to realise that their long-term stability is more beneficial than making gazillions NOW and to hell with tomorrow. The way bonuses were structured to reward short-term gain rather than long-term profitability and stability reflects this.

Of course you are right, bankers are far from unique in this respect, I can very happily bitch about state aid, government corruption / incompetence etc, whoever is involved from whatever sector of the economy. Bottom line (and what's actually relevant to this story) - It's perfectly fine for people to make loads of money if done legitimately and ethically.

But since we've gone off at a bit of a tangent - It's also a proven fact through human history that some people will do anything for a quick buck, and therefore need to be controlled. The bad thing is that our control mechanism (democracy) over the mechanisms that control business (regulators) has been subverted so that now business controls the regulators

Stress is..

Stress is a potentially debilitating condition which can make it totally impossible to do even the simplest job, and can render life virtually unbearable for the person suffering it. The earlier it's addressed by stepping away from the causes of it for a while, the quicker it is to fix. Unfortunately some people assume that they are immune or that it is not a real problem and work until they are virtually destroyed, leading to extremely long recovery times.

Covering someone's job for 18 months and not asking for any more money though = just plain stupid