Anger fatigue.

Anger is exhausting, especially when it's fuzzy rather than specifically targeted. And many consumers are angry at all the business leaders' greed and their willingness and even eagerness to take all the money they could get for themselves and their family without any regard for those people who thought that their money was safe and in good and trustworthy hands.

* "Furious, angry, resentful, disgusted, and ready to hang 'em all."

* "Many of us have more concerns about the food we eat. Manufacturers cut corners by purchasing their products and ingredients from the lowest bidder. These cut rate places may or may not follow the roles as to how their product is produced. The thing is that it seems the manufacturers are aware of these contaminations long before they ever hit the news, thereby endangering people over a long period of time."

* "I hate to see the dirty lenders who made all those horrible loans just get away with it. There should be a way to bring them to trial."

* "I read that Trump described himself as the smartest man that he 'd ever met. What an ugly, ego-manic thing to say. If great personal wealth is what great intelligence leads to, the world as we know it now is not going to survive."

* "Worried and angered by the peanut butter scandal--why it was not detected earlier and where it was and what companies knew--we are no better than China."

This last comment is pretty sophisticated, and the shopper who made it is an influential woman who is widely respected in her community. Although it's not directed at any specific company or executive, it sounds to me like a wakeup call for more self-scrutiny and better communications from the industry.

A few years ago, Walmart went into a period of intensive analysis of their mission and how they could do a better job of communicating it. The food industry as a whole needs to engage in that kind of exercise. It's too important to all of us and to the place of the United States in the world economy to let its integrity slip away in the wake of the crisis in other industries.

Not much of that anger is being directed at the food industry right now, but some of the residual feelings are contributing to the perception that profit is all that matters and that CEOs care much more about their paycheck than the safety of their products.

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