This is why nice, neat theories of perfectly rational economic behavior fall apart quickly in reality.
This is why regulation is necessary. Because there is a tendency in some people to break the rules, and to bend them over time to serve their disordered minds and appetites.
This is why there must be checks and balances on power. Especially when that power appeals to noble symbols as a cover for their excessive misdeeds and complex secrecy.
We have seen entire sections of corporate organizations bent to the will of persuasive psychopathy. And even when they fail, they will rise up to find a new place to obtain what they need, without shame or remorse, or even a genuine understanding of why they have failed, although they may get better at the execution of their schemes. They will blame everyone else for being unworthy of them.
And sometimes an entire culture can take on the character of the psychopath, especially under periods of intense or protracted stress, when they surrender their wills to the powerful wills of a few. And they will project their increasing deformity on to others, even as they descend steadily into the abyss.
They maintain an emotional detachment, a kind of moral high ground in their own minds, by rationalizing the consequences of their increasingly monstrous behavior and excess by pointing out the failings of others. 'I did not make them believe my lies. They believed because they are inferior. They did not stop me, so they deserved it. '
If they ever speak frankly about their view of things amongst their confidants, the normal person would be stunned by their distorted world view, often writing off large segments of the population as unworthy and disposable, for the most part because they impede their desires, although they will often ascribe it to some irreparable defect in these others, making them unworthy of life.
The high performing psychopath gravitates towards positions of power, saying or doing whatever it takes to get the ability to satisfy their own desires which are insatiable, because they are caught in the hell of being unable to love and feel genuine love in return. They are a black hole of desires and needs.
And psychopaths breed sociopaths, imitators who are able to extinguish their own empathy and remorse through ideology and excess including violence, sex, and drugs.
What would you do to protect your children from people like this? Throughout history people have banded together in order to establish and maintain the rule of law.
This is why romantic notions about markets without law and transparent regulation are so harmful. They turn the power of the markets over to the least scrupulous and self-controlled in a society. This is why any social system without checks and balances, without transparency and restraints, will eventually deteriorate into a dysfunctional system of self-interest and looting.
People are not perfectly rational angels. It is hard to believe that one must say that to an adult audience, but ideology and conditioning can make people blind.
