Millions of people have had their lives decimated while the money guys have gotten richer and richer. I’m not talking just about swindlers like Madoff, I’m talking about mortgage swindlers and AIG executives, bankers and traders, though the Madoff types should be included.
If we allot a dollar value to a human life, like forty thousand a year for fifty years, or whatever the median income is, for an average life of working, and count the theft of this sum, about two million dollars (or less!), as capital murder, do you think this might slow down the swindlers? Imagine a mortgage broker being charged not with fraud, but with murder. Imagine an AIG executive being charged with thousands of counts of manslaughter.
I think ANY crime involving a couple million or so should be considered as capital murder. Bernie Madoff would have been charged with about four thousand counts of manslaughter.
White collar crime destroys lives, leaves people homeless and unable to support their families, and prevents responsible parents from sending their children to college to provide their offspring with better opportunities. Our whole society suffers.
What do you guys think?
You guys miss the point. A human being works his entire life for "X" amount of income, which translates to food and clothing and shelter for his family. And, security for retirement. The person who takes the money essentially erases that.
So, the big robbers get treated like big shoplifters. But, they have stolen lives and security from hundreds, or thousands, or millions of people.
Our current recession was precipitated by a bunch of greedy thieves. Those of us who worked hard, honest lives have seen our homes taken and our marriages ruined, so that executives at AIG could get multimillion dollar bonuses.
And, these guys have driven the nails into the coffins of a lot of smart people who would otherwise have gone to college, but are now eking out minimum wage lives. They did not steal money. They stole a generation of folk who could otherwise advance the American dream.
They deserve capital punishment. Might make the next crew think twice, don’t you think?