If I had wanted to make a ton of money is this life, I would have a different career than journalism.

But journalism was, to my mind, the best way to make change in the world and serve people. An informed public is who we’re supposed to trust to make decisions in a democracy – my goal was to do that in a fair way to enable the best outcome.

I write this because today seems like a banner day for the “greed is good” mantra that Michael Douglas’ character preached in “Wall Street.”

Because there are people who don’t do what they do strictly to enrich themselves. They do it to serve their community. To advance humanity. Out of love for their country.

I’m talking, in particular, who sign up to work for the federal government or who choose to join our armed forces.

Yes, these people are trying to make a living. But if they wanted wealth, they picked the wrong “Let’s Make a Deal” curtain. And, until 2025, they probably were OK with that.

So let’s start with the thousands of federal employees who knew they were spending their final day on the job Tuesday.

They voluntarily resigned or retired in order to salvage some compensation after the Elon Musk barbarians ransacked the government in the first weeks of Trump’s second term.

Government work always seems to be diminished by popular culture – and especially by politicians, mostly (but not always) on the right.

They’re pointy-headed bureaucrats. Pencil pushers. Bean counters. Meddling. Power mad. Self-important. Job seekers. The scariest words in the English language are “I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”

Did I miss anything?

In the face of that, in the face of hearing how the work is unnecessary and a nuisance to society, these people choose to do it anyway. Fine tune weather forecasts. Inspect alfalfa sprouts. Monitor car emissions. Negotiate aid for countries trying to develop an economy. Clean out the portapotties at Yellowstone.

Prosecute insurrectionists.

They do it because they love America, even if way too much of America doesn’t love them. They do it because the Constitution that they’ve sworn an oath to uphold is what actually makes America great – not high-powered weapons or inflated stock prices or some egomaniac with orange makeup.

The government’s carrot to getting the best workers possible, people who need to pass a test to get their job, was job security and structured pay tiers. None of this Six Sigma crap that requires layoffs every so often to cull perceived inadequacy, People did difficult work without commissars whipping them into some task.

With experience comes expertise. The kind of people who stay calm in a crisis. The kind of people who lead younger workers by example.

The cranks who want a government so small they can drown it in a bathtub have the money to pay for what they need, or lawyers who can get them what they need. Greed is good for them. The less government infringes on greed, the better.

They – and people they’ve misled through their control of exploitive media – are thrilled to see this exodus of competence. The more government doesn’t work, the more they can say government doesn’t work. It feeds itself. The greedy get more. The targets get hurt. The people they mislead get angrier.

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Then there are the people who still had a job until the stroke of midnight Tuesday (Reminder: Midnight is the last moment of the prior day. 12:00:01 is the next day).

That’s when the government shut down because the Republican president and Congress couldn’t pass a budget.

If you think the Democrats are shutting down the government, you’re an idiot. There’s a simple formula for this – let’s see if even MAGA types can figure it out.

The Republicans need Democratic votes to pass a budget because they don’t have enough votes in the Senate to do so. In a democracy, if you don’t have the votes, you negotiate. Republicans believe negotiating means you accede to our demands and then we demand more.

That might not work this time.

Whatever the situation, the people paying the price aren’t the independently wealthy members of Congress. No, no, no.

It’s the people still in the employ of the federal government. And they either get furloughed – sent home without pay – or have to work even though they don’t get paid, which last I looked is something akin to slavery.

Either way, people who want to help their fellow Americans are helpless in a Republican shutdown. The people who campaign complaining about government doesn’t want make sure they’re right.

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Finally, we have the spectacle of Tuesday’s gathering of generals and commanders in Virginia at the behest of Hegseth and Trump, two walking and talking arguments for birth control.

Hegseth, the noted ubriacone, talked about violating rules of engagement and creating a warrior class that looks like his manifestation of those little green soldiers in “Toy Story.” Trump basically told them that they’re going to be fighting a war in such battlegrounds as Times Square, the Loop, Fisherman’s Wharf and Beverly Hills – against people who might very well be their parents, their siblings, their best friends from high school.

Stereotypes depict military leaders as excited by the prospect of battle. The truth is much different.

Talk to your friends or acquaintances who have chosen to serve their country instead of scramble for a buck. Who have led men and women into battle and seen them die on a battlefield. Who have made hard decisions and pledged an oath to defend the Constitution against enemies foreign and domestic.

Those generals didn’t tough it out in a military career to satisfy their urge to yell, or to wear uncomfortable outfits weighed down with medals and ribbons – what they call “fruit salad.”

The only light of that farce in Virginia was in the silence. The complete non-response of the military leaders to what Hegseth and Trump thought was going to be their red meat. The pained and angered expressions of people who take their oath seriously and understand that American people are never our enemies.

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Because they, like the government workers, pledged themselves to serve and protect us. There’s something incredibly noble about people who believe in this country’s governmental institutions and traditions, and who think that making them work is their duty.

People like Trump and Hegseth don’t get that. People who believe this country’s CEOs and financiers are the real heroes of society don’t get that. They think greed drives this country.

There are times when it has. This may be one of them. But that is not the hallmark of a great nation. It’s the hallmark of tinpot dictators and weak cowards.

Thank goodness for those generals. Thank goodness for the people who work in what some people deride as the bureaucracy. Thank goodness for the diplomats and inspectors and park rangers and, in a personal tribute, the lawyers who forsook riches because they have scruples.

We need to make this country safe for real patriots again. Until then, best wishes – and stay strong.