Comment by fauigerzigerk

"Absent negative externalities or monopoly effects, a man receives from the free market what he gives to it, his material worth is a running tally of the net benefit that he has provided to his fellow man"

I'm not surprised that someone whose ideology makes him believe that Einstein's contribution to society was smaller than that of the bosses of Lehman or AIG would be disappointed by reality. Or is it that reality itself is a "negative externality"?

No, I think the issue is one of faulty interpretation of that ideology. It's a serious mistake that people make all the time. They mix up statistical probabilities and individual causality. The average efficiency of markets includes scams as well as geniuses. It includes people who contribute a lot but market themselves badly and it includes the exact opposite.