Do I Feel Sorry for Her?

She lost 30 years worth of retirement savings. While Madoff is clearly the one in the wrong can she also hold some responsibility? Or is that like blaming the rape victim?

She's clearly a liberal - you can tell by her article and the things she uses as examples.

"Since Madoff's arrest in December on charges of running a $50 billion Ponzi scheme, I've read many articles about how we Madoff investors should have known what was going on, how believing in Madoff was no different than believing there were WMD in Iraq."

Oy...how long are liberals going to deny the FACT that there WERE WMDs in Iraq? Sheesh.

But I can also tell because of her attitude about her life. Doing odd jobs so that she could focus on her love of writing. "It was always more important for me to find work that I loved than to be rich." Which is great. But not very practical and I find most liberals not to be uber-practical.

Her naivete and, dare I say stupidity, as well as greed led her to invest in a "sure thing" when there is no such thing. It does not matter how much a person understands, or doesn't understand, investing. There is this little thing called common sense.

Common sense tells me that I can't get something for nothing. Common sense says that there is no free lunch (or maybe that was my mom). Greed desires great rewards with little work and scam artists thrive on the greed of others (as well as their own).

So do I feel sorry for her? A little. I mean, it sucks to have lost all that money. But if she hadn't been greedy and naive she probably would have stopped, taken a few steps back and wondered how her money was "growing".

Putting all your eggs in one basket also flies against common sense. I'm in that boat now and need to branch out and diversify but I'm lazy (as opposed to greedy ... I wonder which is worse). We are diversified to a point but for the most part our biggest chunk of investment is with my employer (no, it's not an Enron type thing don't worry). I wouldn't lose my investments if I were fired...they would roll into something else. But it is a large and scary amount (large for me ... not Madoff large).

So she's a liberal, greedy, and naive. It's the trifecta. And while I wouldn't want to blame a rape victim who wore a tight, short leather skirt, busty shirt, and got drunk at a frat party ... I'd have a hard time mustering up a ton of sympathy. If I have a daughter I will teach her to not put herself in a position that increases her risk of this crime exponentially. Does that take away the responsibility of the criminal? No way.

Do you think I'm blaming the victim? Maybe I am sort of. Maybe if Madoff hadn't had so many willing victims he wouldn't have been able to thrive off of their greed. Greed clearly blinded many smart people. Sad.

There is no guarantee in life...everything we do has some risk associated with it in some way, shape, or form. It's too bad that some people have to learn the hard way.