As regulators sift through the financial rubble, there are questions about what role lavish bonuses played in the debacle.

Without knowing all the refind details of what's behind lavish bonuses, my gut reaction is that there is something terribly wrong with us as human beings. In Pitrum Sorokin's book, "The Crisis of Our Age," he talks about the different extremes that motivate societies and cutures. Each period lasts perhaps 100 years if not more. We are definitely in a period of the "me" generation, based on greed and the material world. What is for sure is that in other times, people like Bernie Madoff and any number of fat cat CEO's of large banks and investment houses that have walked away with ridiculous bonuses would have been burned at the stake or stoned to death. Society simply would not have accepted this type of behavior, and would have done something about it. It seems that in today's world, it is considered bad behavior, but not low enough to be punishable by the masses. Whether we are lacking religion or something else, we are a sick self motivated society and all for the wrong reasons. It is a pity because imagine what could be done with all that wasted money, if it was used to really help this world?