Bernard Madoff

I think Bernard Madoff got what was coming to him. He’s obviously a bad bad person. He’ll die in prison. Of course it might be one of those really nice prisons with tennis courts, gourmet food and bidets. I do feel sorry for people who were trusting someone to handle their money that decided to invest with Madoff. If I were rich, I’d probably have someone handling my money too or I’d bury it in jars. Again, I feel sorry for those those whose cash ended up with Madoff because of misplaced trust in their accountants who were supposed to handle their money wisely. However, I do not feel sorry for those who took the bulk of their money and gave it to Madoff for the promise of making unrealistic returns. They should’ve known better.

I didn’t think much about it until I watched an interview of an elderly man who had lost his savings and was having to go back to work. I initially felt very sorry for him - he’d lost most of his savings which was $700,000 after investing it with Madoff. It made me angry - that was awful! Then it started to sink in that this guy already had $700,000! (a whole hell of a lot of money to me) He got greedy, tried to make more money and lost it all. There was a similar story about a family that had lost several million dollars.

This follows a familiar pattern: smart greedy people taking money from dumb greedy people. Other than scale, it’s no different than people who order get-rich-quick-without-doing-any-work-so-you-can-finally-realize-your-dreams tapes/DVDs from late night infomercials. The only people getting rich are the ones selling the tapes. Don’t misunderstand me, I admit, if I really really could make money for doing nothing and it not be illegal I guess I’d do it, but like most people, I know better. I’m sure I’m nowhere near as smart as any of Madoff’s clients. I couldn’t carry my weight in a conversation about money, the stock market, investments, and couldn’t babble on much about ‘making my money work for me.’ If I did have a good bit of money, burying it in jars in my backyard might not be a bad idea. It wouldn’t exactly be ‘working for me’ and might get downright lazy out there but unlike a lot of formerly wealthy dumb-asses, at least I’d still have it.