#Occupy Everywhere as of the Morning of October 27th: The Banker Question

With the police actions of the last 48 hours, I fear the movement has already reached a tipping point. Has the worm turned? Are we heading towards mass violence? Who among us actually believes that what happened - as seems to still be ongoing as I write this - in Oakland will make things better? We seem to be very very sophisticated but poorly wired robots who learn nothing from history, much less how to fix our own wiring (which I actually think we are capable of doing, at least theoretically).
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What's going unsaid?

What is the function of a banker, really? Why are they allowed to function as more than a civil servant? Someone please answer that question for me.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb, for my "money" (ha!) one of the most interesting philosophers alive, on October 18, was on Bloomberg TV, afraid that it's "too late," that violent class warfare will now open like a running sore (my words, not Nassim's), that banks really should be more like public utilities, and that the gross bonuses and salaries bankers are paid is absurd, and that this needs to be fixed ASAP. It gets wildly interesting - for me - when Nassim starts explaining a part of Hammurabi's Code and how we ought to model banker's behavior. You need to devote about 14 minutes of your time here, but you might find it worthwhile; I know I did. Here it is:

Some of the take-away points regarding bankers:

BANK BONUSES
• "They caused the crisis, we know that. Last year, they had a record bonus. This is not something that is rational."
• "They are hijacking the American economy then saying that you need to pay us bonuses'."
• "The core of this situation is a problem concerning bank compensation."
• "The only information you get from bank earnings is the compensation. Only valuable information you can get from [bank earnings] is how much they pay themselves."
• "Anything above zero is too much money....if we bail you out, you should not be paid a bonus."
• "If you are a banker, and we will bail you someday, then you cannot earn more than a civil servant of a corresponding rank."