It doesn't have to material consequence. Do you think these people are happy or fulfilled? They build their own prisons and make their own beds.

That's the story I was raised to believe in, but similar to GP's realization, I think it's bullshit too. Plenty of crooks and liars look very happy and I doubt they have problems sleeping at night. Hell, our modern world actually glorifies lying and assholery these days, turning such behavior into respected and well-compensated career paths.

You can think it’s BS but the data disagree. Just look at correlated divorce rates, suicide, depression, etc.

Correlated with what? Do we have a measure of crookiness we can correlate with?

Maybe the aggregate, in their unwillingness to act in favor of good/love/empathy/truth - of virtue - is being doled out their own karmic rash by the frequency of misdeeds. Inaction is just as culpable as inaction - failing to hold corporations, politicians, bullies to account breaks the accords on which civilization was founded, and with the heaving of that foundation is it any wonder more and more people are turning to increasingly extreme methods? And as this all is broken asunder is it any wonder that people think these systems are the problem - and who is to say they aren't? So it should come as no shock when someone who is antithetical to these broken norms is allowed success.

I've watched a lot of people who make precarious moral decisions slide into various modes of turmoil over time. And I'm not exclusion. Just because it isn't evident on the face doesn't mean it isn't working.

Yes? People who are bad are usually bad precisely because they are capable of rationalizing bad behavior.