David Levine, an economist at Washington University in St. Louis, said it was useful to distinguish between altruistic punishment and schadenfreude. Taking pleasure in the discomfort of others is counterproductive, whereas targeting anger at people who violate the public trust can serve a strategic and useful purpose.
The problem with altruistic punishment, of course, is that it is driven by a feeling of uncontrollable anger. From an evolutionary perspective, this makes sense. Only a very strong drive could prompt individuals to put themselves at risk for the good of the group. But as a result, experiments show, there are people even willing to bring the entire house down if that is the only way to punish the fat cats who elevate narrow self-interest above the common good.
There is a middle way between cold rationalism and irrational, self-destructive anger: Pour taxpayer money into fixing broken institutions, but make sure those responsible for the catastrophe pay -- and pay publicly. As Levine put it, just because you don't want to throw the baby out with the bath water doesn't mean you don't throw out the bath water.
