Weep, weep children, for surely now we are in the darkest of hours. Wall Street pay suffered its worst decline in modern history last year. Is this not a "wake-up call," America?

According to David Belkin, an economist with the city's Independent Budget Office, the average worker in New York City's securities industry was paid $311,279 in 2009 in salary, bonuses and exercised stock options. While that is still an enormous sum to most people, it represented a cut of about $85,000 from the average annual wages in that sector in 2008, Mr. Belkin calculated, adjusting for inflation.

So the most severe financial calamity since the Great Depression knocked 20% off the average JPMorgan drone's take-home pay. Yet somehow Wall Street has managed to avoid being bombarded by the falling bodies of distraught investment bankers. Take this as a lesson, Main Street.