There’s nothing quite so irritating as privileged people not realizing that they’re privileged during the recession, like those people that are soooooo devastated at having to sell their vacation homes in the Hamptons. Recently, the New York Times covered a bunch of these Joe Six Figures in an article in which it was stated, “With Wall Street hemorrhaging jobs, bonuses disappearing and the financial sector going through a seismic shift, some bankers and lawyers are switching lanes to more creative career paths.”

Possibly the most nauseating of the lot is Shaun Gatter, a former VP and consultant at an investment bank now working on a novel and glorying in “being liberated from the golden handcuffs of Wall Street,” with the self-righteousness of a man bursting out of the Underground Railroad.

The article elaborates:

Shaun Gatter, 38, left his position as a vice president and counsel at a large investment bank last year to work on his novel about a Jewish South African family, a story set against the backdrop of apartheid.

Mr. Gatter says that the decision has meant a huge financial adjustment, but that the payback — having more mental energy for his book — has been worth it…

Mr. Gatter said that many of his colleagues at the bank commended his choice to leave, telling him that they also nursed ambitions to be chefs, photographers, writers and artists.

“Everyone seems to have something else they would rather be doing than their 9-to-5,” he said. “I think that people who are losing their jobs are being forced to pursue their dreams and, in a way, are being liberated from the golden handcuffs of Wall Street and venturing into something that might fulfill them.”

It would all be peachy keen celebrating the recession as an opportunity to relish Bohemia if it weren’t for the fact that Gatter wasn’t actually forced out of his position, but willingly departed from the investment bank. Then it also seems a bit tacky considering the fact that most also aren’t able to live off the remnants of their formerly fat salaries but are being let go from their $30K per annum jobs; they aren’t glorying in “having more mental energy,” but are actually freaking out trying to figure out how to pay their rent. This recession-cum-artistic-emancipation is really uplifting though.