RANGER AGAINST WAR: Need and Greed <

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Need and Greed

--Money, Andy Warhol

When you touch me it's so delicious

That's money, honey
Baby, when you tear me to pieces

That's money, honey

--Money Honey, Lady Gaga

Norbert the Rat

The wonderful, wonderful rat;

Whenever he gets in a fix

He reaches into his bag of tricks!

--Norbert the Rat


--He wants more, don't you, Rocco?

--Yeah. That's it. More.
That's right! I want more!
--W
ill you ever get enough?
--Well, I never have. No, I guess I won't

--Key Largo
(1948)
_______________

The subtitle for this article is, "karma is a bad mofo," or more delicately: "comeuppance".

The world runs on need and greed. Even in the World of Warcraft, "Need before Greed
describes a rule of looting etiquette as well as the loot setting enforcing that etiquette" (wowwiki). Recent economic events in America were blamed on greed above need, but is that really it?

Ranger was recently exposed to a Madoff "victim" via a six-degrees-of-separation scenario (well, actually two) causing him to peruse the concept of victimhood.
There is a personal reason for writing this. For revealing the mentality of entitlement so engendered.

But first some thoughts on the term in the abstract; later, its application in the concrete.

A victim is a resident of the Ninth Ward who has lost his shotgun shack to Hurricane Katrina, forever. A victim is a kid molested by a priest or a trusted family friend. However, today the concept of victimhood is being diluted by virtue of its being applied to those who are not truly victims.
We are re-branding greedy investors as victims. (Read here for an ethicist's take on Madoff.)

The first rule of hustlers and con men is,
you cannot con an honest men. It was not greed alone that caused our financial problems, but a complete lack of honesty within the financial sector, abetted by government indifference. The dishonesty was on our side of the equation -- you and I were the problem.

Greed may be intrinsic to the human being, but opacity is not. It is not the greed, per se, but the dishonesty (cover-ups) perpetrated in reaching for gain which is unrighteous.

To the greedy, everyone is measured per their capacity as a tool of loss or gain. That is also the crime: The lies + the transformation of individuals into tools -- agents of either gain of loss.


This dishonesty extends beyond the financial sector. The entire political life of this contracting nation is based upon dishonesty fed by greed. We call this dishonest system,
democracy. If democracy is dishonest, then our "honest" lives are shams. Our "freedom-loving" policies are shams, as well as the institutions which perpetuate these ideals.

So we have established that the real injustice is obfuscation of one's intent, and using people for one's own benefit (whether that means actively employing them or discarding them.) Lying and exploitation.


Ranger does not play the market, but he knows the Rules of the Game. One does not expect a consistent 10% annual yield on investments, and that is precisely what the Madoff scheme investors made off with.
Maybe they were occasionally a little uneasy, but hey, what's to complain about?

Oh, losing all the money you thought you'd have for retirement? O.k., so now you know what its like for the rest of us. Maybe there is some kind of cosmic justice. Maybe, it's just the rules of the marketplace. Certainly, there is justice for Mr. Madoff, who himself had apprehensions of his own divine retribution; his comeuppance came.


The guise in which Madoff was visited upon Ranger concerned an event in which a
"Madoff victim" was given preferential treatment, co-opting a previous agreement with another party because, well, the Madoff investor had it so bad, y'know. The event organizer actually chose to contravene a "gentleman's agreement" with the initial party because there was profit to made over the switch, both monetarily and image-wise.

The truth underneath the switch-cum-largesse was
profit + an elite collegiality. A profit was to be made by excluding the initial party in favor of the group being able to rub elbows with a "Madoff victim" more a part of their social circle. It was behavior in bad faith, the same bad faith which allowed for a Madoff and all the rest.

The event organizers were disingenuous in their choice of cachet over decency, yet hid behind their posture of generosity toward the "victims".


The only victim in Ranger's scenario was the humble individual who made event plans in good faith but who was excluded, all
under the organizer's guise of operating in good faith and even magnanimity.


Bottom line: people who had money to invest with Mr. Madoff may be sorry and suffering in their own way, but they are not really victims. When you make it to the ranks of being able to invest with Mr. Madoff, you are not a victim, not in any traditional sense.
You are not innocent; you knew the risks to be had in exchange for your hefty returns.

When one invests in the market, one is not naive. One understands that profit comes with risks -- the risk that all might be lost.


To extend victimhood to Madoff investors and second-home flippers is to allow for the diminution of actual victims.
The term "victim" should be reserved for someone truly innocent, who had no hand in their situation.

In retrospect, it is fit that this group remains tightly cohered.

Their karma is ensured.

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4 Comments:

Anonymous sheerahkahn said...

I would have to agree suckers, dupes, and fools have been redefined/re-imaged as victims when in truth they were eagerly willing to throw their lot in with someone who was willing to snow anyone to gain their trust/money.

Perhaps, if they had listen to their elders when they were young whom were conferred upon by the wiser generation the tried-and-true truth about get rich quick scams..."if it sounds to good to be true, it probably is," so now, caught with their pants down, they cry victim.

Boo-fucking-hoo!

They got taken for a ride from someone they "trusted" though everything in their skulls was screaming at them, "what are you doing? Don't do it!"No, they are not victims by any stretch of the imagination just average, run-of-the-mill suckers, dupes, and fools who got taken for a ride by a con-man, and hopefully, the wiser for it...a damn pity this important lesson in life had to be learned in their golden years.

But hopefully they learned it. I know I did...when I was 17.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009 at 3:02:00 PM GMT-5  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

My Pop told one day Son if sounds to good to be true Well you know the rest. It's all about Greed and madison ave teaches it very early and very well.
jo6pac

Wednesday, April 29, 2009 at 8:18:00 PM GMT-5  
Blogger The Minstrel Boy said...

one of the more telling things about the whole madoff debacle came from the wsj, they reported that the word on the street, from those folks who are supposed to be knowing shit, all knew that the numbers madoff was promising, and for a long time paying, were simply not possible to achieve without there being a scam of some kind driving the numbers.

they knew something was hinky. so why then you ask, did all those masters of the universe, smartest guys in the room types go ahead and sink funds entrusted to their stewardship into madoff's scheme?

they simply guessed wrong as to the type of scam. most of them figured he had an inside track on the big deals and other things that legitimately drive the world of stock prices.

they thought is was an insider trading scam. they were OK with that shit. it's something that they would all do if they had the line working.

they weren't expecting a bog simple ponzi.

Thursday, April 30, 2009 at 10:07:00 AM GMT-5  
Blogger rangeragainstwar said...

sheerahkhan,
In Saigon we called these people SLICKY BOYS.
jim

Friday, May 1, 2009 at 9:09:00 AM GMT-5  

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