by Thomas Craig
One word. Unbelievable. The Nation, no... the WORLD have unanimously condemned this man as running the biggest ponzi scheme in history. While I agree that this man is scum, I don't credit him with pulling off the largest heist in history. For that dubious honor, we must look to our own Government. Let's take social security for example. Anytime an American receives a paycheck, a portion of that paycheck is taken out and put towards social security. (At least Madoff's victims voluntarily gave him their money.) Our "contributions" are then used to pay for retired workers who paid their dues earlier. When I retire, my children will pay a portion of their paychecks so that the Government can pay for my retirement. In addition to this basic ponzi formula, our Government (much like Madoff) continually dips into the money set aside for social security to pay for completely unrelated expenses. Look up "Ponzi Scheme" on wikipedia. Their definition is... A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investment operation that pays returns to investors from their own money or money paid by subsequent investors rather than from any actual profit earned. Who will be held responsible when this ponzi scheme fails? President Bush tried to break this cycle and allow individual investment of one's own money instead of mandatory contributions. The Democrats defeated this by fear-mongering senior citizens into thinking they will lose their benefits. A real solution was introduced and the Left rejected it! Was it a perfect solution? No, they never are, but it sure was a good start. I don't mean to minimalize what Bernie Madoff did, but I think it is an ample opportunity to address the ongoing Great American Ponzi Scheme. As we all have learned, Ponzi schemes inevitably fail. The larger the scheme, such as Madoff's $65 Billion, the longer the charade might take to unfold. History, however, has shown that it WILL always unravel in the end. You think the crisis is bad now? Unless Washington does something, just watch and wait to see the crises to come.
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