An unending deluge of Madoff-related shit continues to hit the fan. The newest story is that Mep alma mater, Brandeis University, is planning a fire sale to compensate for a crumbling budget. And the budget deficit is primarily due to several major donors’ associations with Bernie Madoff.
Most commentators are outraged that a university would sell priceless collectibles to compensate for a slow fundraising year. I don’t really have a strong opinion on that. I’m outraged that no one seems to be accountable for their own stupidity.
Scores of wealthy clients just put their money in a satchel and handed it over to Madoff with no questions asked. Investors got a supernaturally consistent profit, year after year, receiving no paperwork or summary statement of what had made them this money. No one knew what their money was doing to multiply in this way, and seemingly, no one cared.
Madoff could just as easily have been selling nuclear secrets to China, or grinding up Indonesian hospital waste into a homemade bouillabaisse. But as long as the checks kept showing up on time, no one had any intention of applying any kind of scrutiny.
Perhaps then, as stated in the 85% theory, stupidity isn’t really the issue here. It’s just apathy. Complacency. That and greed, of course. Well I have no patience for the willfully ignorant and avaricious. As far as I’m concerned, these people deserved to lose their life savings. Brandeis deserves to lose its museum.
As Canada Bill Jones said, “It’s immoral to let a sucker keep his money.”
And, as Robert Heinlein said, “TANSTAAFL.” (There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch)
Chew on that.
/end rant
