Commanders Post at The Warpath - View Single Post - Madoff's New Home: Cell the Size of Walk-in Closet

70Chip · 03-13-2009, 02:34 PM

Some of the money went to pay for the lavish lifestyle of his family and associates. The bulk of it however was probably paid back to investors as dividends to maintain the illusion of propriety, with the earliest investors probably getting back more than they put in. That's how pyramid schemes work. Some investors did quite well but we won't here about them for a while, because they have no motive to come forward. In fact they would probably like to disappear, because there are laws that will require them to forfeit any returns they got, so whatever is left can be distributed more fairly

Obviously Madoff should rot, but for some reason I can't get as worked up as everybody else at the plight of the victims. I'll give you two reasons why:

1. Somebody that has 5 or 10 million dollars to lose in the first place also has real assets - house(s), car(s), jewelry, that they can liquidate and live on (although living like regular people will surely seem like a hardship) Also, Mort Zuckerman and Steven Spielberg will be okay. Kevin Bacon lost everything, but if he makes just three movies he'll make enough loot to live fairly well. The bottom line here is that losing a small fortune is not a tragedy to me in the same way that say, childhood cancer is. There is hardship and then there is hardship.

2. Madoff suckered these people the same way grifters and confidence artists have been suckering people for years. He appealed to their own greed. If you have 5 million dollars, you can make extremely safe investments and still see annual returns in the six digits. Along comes Madoff and he says, "6% is for schmucks. You're way too smart to JUST earn 6%. Someone as intelligent and good looking as you deserves at least 11% or 12% and I can make that happen." At the more basic level the scam might go like this. Guy shows up at an old widow ladies door and he says "I have this check from the government for $5,000. Problem is I can't cash it for two weeks. I'm really desperate for cash so if you'll just give me $3,000 now, I'll sign this check over to you and you'll make $2,000 for just waiting 14 days." She tells herself she's doing a good deed for this poor soul, but she's really in it for the $2,000. The fault is not in our stars, it's in ourselves. It's their own greed and vanity what does them in.

03-13-2009, 02:34 PM	#14
70Chip Playmaker Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Manassas Age: 54 Posts: 3,048	Re: Madoff's New Home: Cell the Size of Walk-in Closet Some of the money went to pay for the lavish lifestyle of his family and associates. The bulk of it however was probably paid back to investors as dividends to maintain the illusion of propriety, with the earliest investors probably getting back more than they put in. That's how pyramid schemes work. Some investors did quite well but we won't here about them for a while, because they have no motive to come forward. In fact they would probably like to disappear, because there are laws that will require them to forfeit any returns they got, so whatever is left can be distributed more fairly Obviously Madoff should rot, but for some reason I can't get as worked up as everybody else at the plight of the victims. I'll give you two reasons why: 1. Somebody that has 5 or 10 million dollars to lose in the first place also has real assets - house(s), car(s), jewelry, that they can liquidate and live on (although living like regular people will surely seem like a hardship) Also, Mort Zuckerman and Steven Spielberg will be okay. Kevin Bacon lost everything, but if he makes just three movies he'll make enough loot to live fairly well. The bottom line here is that losing a small fortune is not a tragedy to me in the same way that say, childhood cancer is. There is hardship and then there is hardship. 2. Madoff suckered these people the same way grifters and confidence artists have been suckering people for years. He appealed to their own greed. If you have 5 million dollars, you can make extremely safe investments and still see annual returns in the six digits. Along comes Madoff and he says, "6% is for schmucks. You're way too smart to JUST earn 6%. Someone as intelligent and good looking as you deserves at least 11% or 12% and I can make that happen." At the more basic level the scam might go like this. Guy shows up at an old widow ladies door and he says "I have this check from the government for $5,000. Problem is I can't cash it for two weeks. I'm really desperate for cash so if you'll just give me $3,000 now, I'll sign this check over to you and you'll make $2,000 for just waiting 14 days." She tells herself she's doing a good deed for this poor soul, but she's really in it for the $2,000. The fault is not in our stars, it's in ourselves. It's their own greed and vanity what does them in. __________________ This Monkey's Gone to Heaven