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!
--Will 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.