Centerfield

A bit excessive of a sentence, but at the same time I don't have a lot of sympathy for people suckered in to a scheme to breed ants promising a return of 60% or more. Greed, and an unwillingness to understand that things which sound too good to be true probably are, can lose you a lot of money, and when that happens, a big portion of the fault falls on you.

Tangential: A scam to breed giant ants would have been more fun! I had to backtrack on my reading there....

I hear you Pat. There are two issues here. One is how sorry to feel for people whose greed overcomes their capacity for critical thinking (presuming they have it.) On that count, while I agree with you on your point about limited sympathy, I also notice how common such scams are. That tells me a little bit about human nature and how hard it is to change. So I while I acknowledge the critical thinking deficit, I also accept it as a semi-fundamental.

Which brings me to the 2nd issue, which is that some of the folks who notice that semi-fundamental critical-thinking deficit see it as a predatory opportunity. Such predators are among the class of folks I believe deserve to be deposited to the hottest circle of hell.

Folks who are scammed are often guilty of being naive, trusting, and yup, just plain stupid and greedy. Even so, I believe they deserve to be better protected from the pure scum who exploit them, even if that veers towards paternalism.

To the extent that our economy roars and hums on the fuel of dishonest entrepreneurs agressively and dishonestly exploiting dumb greedy investors, I could live with a little more sputtering.

From an economic point of view, the con artists are not contributing to things humming along. Nor are they just nasty people who exploit the naive. They are mucking up the works by taking money which otherwise might find some productive use.

And, in the worst cases, leaving people who could ahve supported themselves to be supported by the rest of society as well. Which means that they are not just robbing the naive, they are managing to rob all the rest of us.

They are mucking up the works by taking money which otherwise might find some productive use. And, in the worst cases, leaving people who could have supported themselves to be supported by the rest of society as well.

Funny, that's my precise objection to government welfare programs for the able-bodied. :-)

interesting note for today

On this day in 2007 China declares it will tighten technology that can be used for WMD and allows an AIDS activist to leave China. China also declares it will not test more ASATS, supports a Space Treaty and will review policies regarding unconditional support for African regimes.

Just to ponder. I doubt these things happen because evil American is in retreat.

As far as welfare, any construction work Tully? half-assed, will travel.....

We do live in a multi-tiered system of justice; you rip off a few cars and you can be in jail for years. Rip off investors to the tune of millions you get 6 to 30 months.

any construction work Tully? half-assed, will travel.....

Well, they're gonna put up a new sports arena here, but I've got no pull with those folks.

I wouldn't call it China style.

It's offensive to the Chinese