Posted by
Optimus Magnus on Wednesday, December 17, 2008 12:08:52 PM
We've been hearing a lot lately about the folks who lost a ton of money in the big $50B Ponzi scheme. One of the tag lines that you always hear some liberal news reader say is that, "Not all the people involved in this scheme were rich." Okay, so some people sunk their life savings of over, say, $50K or less into this. What do these folks have in common with the wealthy investors who got into this? They were after rates of return that they should have KNOWN were unrealistic. ("If it sounds too good to be true...") Succinctly, they were GREEDY!!!
This country has the world's richest poor people. What? Read it again. Do you know how many people I run into who love to gripe about how they can't afford shoes for their kids and in the same breath tell me how much they won at the casino last night (they never brag about how much they lose getting those jackpots, though) before they have to take a call on their BlueTooth? Something's wrong with this picture. I know that you, as a reader, have had that moment in the grocery store where your ONE cart is behind someone else's TWO carts full of steaks, name brand potato chips, and cases of Coke that the customer paid for with food stamps. In the effort to suppress your anger, you look at the floor; this is when you notice that they are wearing shoes/boots that cost as much as your entire month's insurance bill (including health)! You have listened to that morning talk show where some smart-(butt) single-mom-with-three-plus-kids calls in to brag about how she has cable, a BlueTooth/Blackberry/Razor, internet, and a TV/DVD player in every room! (Seriously, I heard such a call on KCMO a few years back; her oldest daughter was taking dance lessons on your dime.) What on earth is the matter with these people? It isn't hard: they want something for nothing. They are GREEDY.
Grammarians might be tempted to say that I am actually misusing the term 'greedy'. To them, I say that what they are actually hoarding are the resourses allocated to public 'assistance'. What do many of these people want? MORE. The folks who sunk what little they had into a Ponzi scheme wanted something for nothing with the promise of unrealistic high rates of return which were MORE than what their more sensible, conservative neighbors were getting. They were GREEDY.
I'm not rich, nor am I poor. This author is one of those people in Tom Becka's (KFAB) 'Mad Middle'. Admittedly, I'm on the right side of that group, but even I have to admit that the libs don't always get it wrong. Like you, I am tired of seeing companies which made bad decisions being bailed out; I am also tired of seeing able-bodied people on public assistance living a better life than I do.