Steve Jobs and the Trouble with Investing in Junk

I was strangely broken up this morning to hear about the death of Steve Jobs . It took me a good long while to work out why the hell I'd be upset about some corporate toy maker dying. Then I realized why I was upset, and it kinda pissed me off.

On the face of it, we celebrate Steve Jobs because he's that guy you hold up as proving that the American Dream can come true. His success embodies a lot of American ideals, particularly that of the single-man (generally a man) view of history – the...