The least of these …

Richard S. Fuld Jr., Greenwich resident and chief executive of collapsed Lehman Brothers, testified this week before a Congressional hearing and said, “I feel horrible about what has happened to the company and its effects on so many.”

He defended the compensation system that rewarded him with a package that lawmakers said totalled $485 million since 2000 — although he put the figure at $350 million. After all, there was a compensation committee in place that put its imprimatur on those packages.

I have to ask the foolish, simpleminded, naïve question that proves I don’t have the sophistication I always craved: “Does anyone deserve that much money? Anyone?”

One of my daughters who works as director of communications for a fashion company was driving to New Hampshire with me a few days ago, when we were desperate for something to eat and pulled into McDonald’s in a small town off the interstate.

She went in to buy a few burgers and some fries, against my wife’s protests, but I figure you need some junk food in your stomach every so often.

While she went in, I listened to news radio and the agonizing debate about the $700 billion bailout that did nothing to restore our confidence or calm our anger.

A few minutes later, she came out, paper bag in hand, and got into the car, stinking of fast food, with a troubled look on her face.

“What’s wrong? No Big Macs left?” I asked.

“I can’t explain it,” she said. “There was a girl behind the counter who was my age. She had a wedding band on and I think she was pregnant.”

“So? That’s a good thing.”

“But I was sad that she was there, working for a few dollars an hour, while I have so much.”

Good question. Healthy guilt. Some compassion. Does that question ever occur to our corporate leaders?

Shouldn’t we all have a little guilt if our lifestyle is self-indulgent and materialistic? Once in a while it doesn’t hurt to think about the person in Haiti who subsists on a few dollars a day.

Besides the guilt, I hope my daughter has a little gratitude because God has given her so much. And maybe a little compassion for everyone who doesn’t have as much.

At least she doesn’t suffer from the spiritually debilitating sense of entitlement that seems to be shared by executives in the collapsed financial services industry.

Is anyone “entitled” because of breeding, education, social status, salary level, executive position — or for any other reason?

I thought of the day laborers who stand under the bridge waiting for work and how much they incense some people because they earn a few dollars a day. Shouldn’t we be more distraught when people earn hundreds of millions?

There’s a vastly inequitable distribution of wealth in the world. Barack Obama and John McCain won’t solve that. But the first baby-step toward change is being able to look at the Latino woman behind the counter at Dunkin Donuts and wish she had a larger piece of Richard Fuld’s pie, not to mention our own.