Bernie Madoff (actually pronounced made-off)Folk Hero By John Kelley

[Demeter]

t http://www.opednews.com/articles/Bernie-Madoff-actually-pr-by-John-Kelley-081222-898.html



While most folks on the bottom get the shaft, Bernie Madoff made it big. Madoff started his firm with $5,000 in 1960 at 21 years old. He supposedly earned it from installing sprinklers and working as a life guard, a pretty daunting task at 1960 wages even in Long Island.

Bernie has now admitted to swindling rich folks out of $50 billion. Now if any of these people had any idea of how hard it would have been to save $5,000 in 1960 at those kind of jobs they never would have invested with him to start with.

Because he makes the rich look foolish, he is not in jail. Madoff is now grounded by the court, the con goes on. He can only go out of his $5 million dollar Manhattan home from 7am until 9pm and is restricted to Connecticut, southern New York State and the city. He did have to turn in his passport, and can no longer visit his two estates on Long Island, or the one in Palm Beach, or the one in France.

That was because he couldn't find four friends to co-sign for his bail.Pictures of Bernie out for a stroll seem to make him seem like someone those of us on the bottom might even admire.

You see Bernie, on his way up learned something a lot of people, rich or poor, don't know. The rich aren't any smarter than the rest of us. Of course they want to believe that and they just want you to believe that. Hence the title, Masters of the Universe. His victims were long established wealthy families, hedge funds, big charities, big players on Wall Street, and as the New York madam said, the rest of the list will be revealed. Some of these brilliant people invested their whole family savings with Bernie.

They represent la crème de la crème of the moneyed social circuit who created this financial nightmare. Most of that wealth was acquired by inheritance or by actions like the stark avarice of the wizards on Wall Street. The result of such inheritance is the production of whole generations of George Bushs in the halls of financial power and government.

Bernie screwed those guys, the ones who were screwing the rest of us.It is difficult to have much sympathy for these folks; they participated in the mugging of the rest of the country...

[RandomThoughts]

1. Can't just give him a pass

alot of the money he took from rich people, originally came from the middle class.

But your point about them not being smarter is so correct. They have learned different things, but in most cases they may actually be dumber. The challenges of life, even living day to day in the middle class, as a middle manager, or even laborer, can challenge your thinking and keep you sharp.

Being handed degrees at universities, then jobs from other friends, being bailed out when you fail, combined with power lunches and spa trips, without any real challenges, can make 2nd and 3rd generation wealth a bit less capable then many middle class people that make 30k to 100k.

Here is one thing they do know, and it is actually in alot of TV. If you treat people dumb or as a lesser person, that person will take that role. And if you present yourself as capable, people accept it.

Alot of success for many people is just BS. Because people are taught to believe based on programmed notions of status.