Tim has a long post up on Scanlon pleading guilty, and it gives you much of the background and lots of links to follow, but what I can’t find is the answer to a simple question- why?
I simply don’t understand these folks that do stuff like this. Would I like to be rich? Sure, but I am not willing to screw over a boatload of people, and I am DEFINITELY not willing to take the chance that I would humiliate my family or spend years in jail to get rich.
And what REALLY is inexplicable to me are the folks like Adelphia’s Rigas, or the fellow from Tyco, or the others who were bilking sums in the hundreds of millions and billions range. Why? How does your lifestyle change from being worth 100 million to being worth 200 million? Is it that much that you are willing to risk everything?
I just don’t get it.
Doug
Laws are for the little people. I think at that level, they quite simply get to feeling like they’re above the law. And they’re playing The Game where the person with the most money wins. And these folks are compulsive winners. It’s all that matters.
At least that’s my arm chair psychological analysis from down here in the muck, shoulder to shoulder with my fellow little people.
Mr Furious
Just be thankful you don’t, John. There would be something wrong with you if you could identify with behavior that borders on sociopathic.
metalgrid
Sure enough Doug, it’s a power game and money = power based on everyone having a price at which you can buy ’em. I knew one person like that many years ago – with the political connections, the fund raiser parties, etc. and yes, they were above the generic law to all intents and purposes.
Krista
Doug, I think you hit it right on the head. These people have absolutely no fear of the repercussions, because they are certain that they will not get caught, and that if they DO get caught, they (or their friends in high places) can buy their way out of trouble.
In other words, they’re so removed from the reality of everyday life that they might as well be on another planet.
Caroline
It’s simple. They are overuled by greed. Greed overshadows any thought they have otherwise. It’s the get mine mentality. The one with the most toys wins the game.
MrSnrub
And I thought you were a capitalist, Mr. Cole.
I’m deeply disappointed!
DJAnyReason
The thing is, John, neither you nor I will ever get to $100 mil. And this isn’t some lefty class-war railing speech – even if the economic playing field was perfectly balanced and level, it takes a certain type of person with a certain type of greed to even get to the point of uber-rich. They risk everything to get from $100 mil to $200 mil for the selfsame reason they got to $100 mil.
demimondian
There is a wonderful series of studies about the psychology of “being rich”. I’ll go find the references later, if you’re interested, but the main thrust of the results is that being rich is a relative thing.
Mencken once said that a man is rich if he makes 10% more than his wife’s sister’s husband. That turns out to be a pretty accurate summary: you’re rich if you’ve got more than whoever you view as your competition. That means that Ambramov and Scanlon and all these thieves viewed themselves as competing with Bill Gates (or some such). Seen in that light, their behavior stops being quite so bizarre.
And, before you start feeling self-righteous — the studies were beautiful because they also showed that subjects’ perceived competitors changed as they accumulated “wealth”. That is: as you make money, you pick new competitors. As a result, it’s also true that nobody ever feels like he or she is “rich”.
Geek, Esq.
Greed is a vice, a weakness in character.
EL
Agreed. They’re intoxicated with the game, and they feel that everyone they know that counts is playing the same game. So they one-up each other. They obviously don’t need the money at that point, but they need to keep score – and winning is the most important.
At the risk of polarizing the thread, I submit that many political scandals are a result of the same, including the current troubles plaguing the Republicans. I recall one of DeLay’s formal rebukes from the ethics committee: “[t]he fact that a violation results from the overaggressive pursuit of one’s legislative agenda simply does not constitute a mitigating factor.”
There are people who think that winning is justification. Period.
Krista
I think in most cases that is true. I was reading a magazine article, analyzing 5 women, all with different salaries and spending habits, to see which would be likely to retire wealthy. This one woman, in her 20’s, making over $150K a year, was saying that she felt poor because she didn’t have a lot in savings. I wanted to snatch her bald-headed. But then I thought, even though I’m only making about a tenth of what she’s making, I’m still a lot richer than most people in the world, and they’d probably want to snatch me bald-headed when I bitch about being poor.
For the vast majority of people, the more you make, the more you spend, and your lifestyle reflects your income, so that you then cannot imagine living with less. Of course, if you experience a drop in salary, like I did, you then wonder why you used to spend your money on so much crap. (Knowing, in the back of your mind, that you still buy more crap than you really need.)
Jorge
Interesting. I would not have taken John for being so idealistic about human nature. It goes a long way towards explaining his views on the Bush administration. And John, this isn’t a slight. You gotta remember, I read a Psalm every night written by one of the key figures in my religion who just happened to kill a woman’s husband so he could marry her.
Jcricket
I’m with you john. Give me $10 million and I’ll bask happily in my retirement while giving lots to charity. Give me $100 million and I’ll buy a plane and 2 giant houses and still give away 2/3 to charity. Even if I were worth $100 billion, I’d be more like Bill Gates – who lives a pretty nice lifestyle and still is giving away nearly $50 billion so far (as opposed to Larry Ellison).
People like Koslowski and the Rigas’ clan simply had their egos puffed up to a point where they thought they were entitled to take what they wanted from the company coffers. I would argue they simply thought of the laws as technicalities (see Delay as well) that didn’t apply. The laws weren’t meant for CEOs.
Abrahamoff, Reed, Delay & Norquist are a different breed. I think there’s two things at work: Intoxication with the accumulation of power and control; And “righteous” anger at how the government operates with a religious-like conviction that their behavior is justified, and a belief that they will be vindicated down the road.
slickdpdx
I wish someone who understands the subject would explain why the big institutional shareholders like mutual funds don’t demand greater shareholder benefits. If I had a substantial share in any of these businesses I’d wonder why this money wasn’t being paid in dividends, cause its apparently unneeded by the entity.
salvage
I just don’t get it.
Why do some people molest children?
Think Carrot Top is funny?
Eat boogers?
Not getting it in this case is a good thing, some people are bad, they just express their rotteness in different ways.
waddayaknow
It is written that, “The love of money is the root of all evil.” Why is it a surprise that so many in the political orbits have the souls of Scarface and the morals of pond slime. It is my contention that many who feel the need to exercise high power political manipulation have no ethics, no real morals, and great ambition to become wealthy at any cost with no regard for injury or damage imposed on all ‘lesser mortals’, if you will. In my opinion we would do well to revise our thinking to immediately regard politicians, lobbyists, etc. as life forms that have chosen to be no better than slime and treat them all with suspicion and zero respect. Let them prove and reprove their worth to all mankind for as long as they fondle at the public nipple and then restore some modicum of respect when they completely leave the field.
ATS
H.L. Mencken once observed that once a person has subsistence taken care of, he seeks privilege.
Scanlon is just the most recent in a long series of hill staffers to get drunk on perks. Every day they see senators and congressmen live in a “members only” world of privilege. The staffers catch the virus. It is that simple.
Steve S
Then you can never be a true Republican.
srv
Y’all are just a bunch of America haters. Really. Scanlon is just a bit player. It’s not at all about the money after the first few million. America is great because of crooks:
Cooke
Rensselaer
Vanderbilt
Getty
Morgan
Guggenheim
Rockefeller
Hearst
Scaife
Along the way, many a servant was sacrificed to make these great american empires. Congress is just a collection of their servants.
If you disagree, you’re confused. Any time you vote Democract or Republican, you’re just enabling more of this.
DougJ
You’re a sorry excuse for a Republican.
Kimmitt
Me either. So let’s start working on putting together a system where people who are screwing over a boatload of people get caught early.
aop
If I ever have to go from being superrich to just rich, I’m killing myself.
guyermo
SRV, you forgot Carnegi
jcricket
Caught early, prosecuted and punished to a degree where it acts as a deterrent, suitable restitution or both. Including public admissions of guilt.
Kimmitt
If selling babies for profit is wrong, I don’t want to be right.
Steve S
What are you? Some kind of anti-business Communist or something!?
Jake
Give me $10 million and I’ll bask happily in my retirement while giving lots to charity.
But people who spend time thinking about what they’d do if someone gave them $10M will generally never end up with the $10M. It’s the people who spend their time getting the $10M, be it by selling real estate, working 120-hour weeks I-Banking, or scamming old ladies that end up with the money. And if you’re gonna scam someone for $10M, why not $20M?
And, I first heard this observed by Matt Yglesias, but wealth in the US (and probably elsewhere) follows some sort of power distribution. This means that the richer you are, the bigger the gap in wealth between you and your richest friend. Or, if you drive a Chevy Impala, you probably know someone with a nice Audi A6, but if your family drives your fancy Mercedes from Manhattan to your summer house in the Hamptons, you probably know someone who makes that same trip in their helicopter.
Paul Wartenberg
You ask why?
Simply put, GREED. A more complex answer lies in the nature of evil itself. The best ever definition I ever saw about Evil was that “Evil is a lack of empathy.” These corrupt and greedy individuals show no remorse for those they steal from, or lie to, or injure in order to increase their own self-worth. Take a look at the emails and conversations Abramoff conducted about his own Native American clients, where he’s openly insulting HIS OWN CLIENTS and discussing how to get more money out of them at the same time. Remember the Enron-caused California energy crisis? We caught some Enron SOBs on audio openly laughing at “Grandma Millie” and everyone else being forced to pay for a crisis that energy company created.
It becomes not so much the greed as it is the arrogance and self-superiority. Lack of empathy combined with greed, the worst of both worlds.