Apparently those of us who don’t read the New York Times Fashion & Style section are missing out altogether on the frightening human toll of the Wall Street pay limitation proposals. My wife alerted me to “You try to live on 500K in this town,” which contains this plea from the daughter of Pete Peterson, the Nixon-era commerce secretary and founder of the private-equity wheeler-dealer Blackstone Group:

“As hard as it is to believe, bankers who are living on the Upper East Side making $2 or $3 million a year have set up a life for themselves in which they are also at zero at the end of the year with credit cards and mortgage bills that are inescapable,” said Holly Peterson, the author of an Upper East Side novel of manners, The Manny… “Five hundred thousand dollars means taking their kids out of private school and selling their home in a fire sale.”

I’m very sad to hear that. But wouldn’t it be smarter financially just to cut their losses and sell the kids? Market opportunities are where you find them.