Do convicted criminals dream the American dream?
Sure they do - Just look at freshly sentenced criminals Rajat Gupta (former Goldman board member), R. Allen Stanford (sentenced to 110 years in prison without parole), and of course Grandaddy Ponzi himself, Bernie Madoff. Hell, these guys even lived the American dream, with its fast cars, deep pockets, luxury yachts and diamonds for the ladies in life.
Now, these riches-to-rags storybook characters are scheduled to rot in a Federal penitentiary for the rest of their lives, leaving exponentially more finances and possibly life plans ruined in their wake. All this justice, of course, conducted in order to dissuade other current or would-be criminals from acting...in exactly the only way they know of how to get to the American dream - Get Rich or Die/Go to Jail Trying.
Sure they do - Just look at freshly sentenced criminals Rajat Gupta (former Goldman board member), R. Allen Stanford (sentenced to 110 years in prison without parole), and of course Grandaddy Ponzi himself, Bernie Madoff. Hell, these guys even lived the American dream, with its fast cars, deep pockets, luxury yachts and diamonds for the ladies in life.
Now, these riches-to-rags storybook characters are scheduled to rot in a Federal penitentiary for the rest of their lives, leaving exponentially more finances and possibly life plans ruined in their wake. All this justice, of course, conducted in order to dissuade other current or would-be criminals from acting...in exactly the only way they know of how to get to the American dream - Get Rich or Die/Go to Jail Trying.
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| 50 Cent was on to something |
A rather paradoxical message, given
the global rash of government-bank bailouts and the continued reliance
on the instruments (i.e. financial markets) of who-dares-wins
capitalism. But enough of this suddenly-fashionable bashing of fallen
financial idols. It seems like just yesterday when activist judges,
juries, and members of the media started defending the rights of
convicted rapists, murderers, gang-bangers and the assorted denizens of
American death row - new and vindicating/damning DNA evidence
notwithstanding - so I'm sure public opinion will grow weary of its
latest social witch-hunt sooner or later, and that District
Attorneys/Federal Prosecutors will likewise find some other scapegoats
upon which to build their reputations on the docket. Sooner or later,
our generation's To Kill a Mockingbird of the early 21st
century will be published, this time admonishing the veritable
inquisition of financial criminals during a time of long-term recession
and entrenched unemployment.
Yet even in a time of economic downturn, when Wall Street becomes an easy target of Main Street's wrath, no one seems to be pissing on how the wildly-popular (and mostly plastic) Kardashians, the train-wreck-of-an-excuse-for-
Yet even in a time of economic downturn, when Wall Street becomes an easy target of Main Street's wrath, no one seems to be pissing on how the wildly-popular (and mostly plastic) Kardashians, the train-wreck-of-an-excuse-for-
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| oh...nevermind. |
What compelled me to finally write original content for the blog again - and a three-part series, at that - was a combination of many factors, the premier of which was my roommate's comment that, "no offense, but I think the American Dream is more of a Dream than a Reality."
