Aware Brain

The philosophical writer Thomas Sowell asks rhetorically about affordable housing:

“..affordable housing. It is hard for me to know specifically what politicians are talking about when they use this phrase.”

What he observes is that in most cases affordable housing really means:

“….trying to enable people to choose what housing they want first– and then have some law or policy where somebody else, somewhere else, somehow or other, makes that housing “affordable” for them.”

He goes on to talk about what affordable housing should mean, as it meant to him growing up. When he could only afford $30 per month for a place to live, guess where he lived? In a $30-a-month place! He probably did not like the accommodations much, but that gave him an incentive to be smart about building a life that could get him something better.

Thomas Sowell -  website – bio & accomplishments

It has become obvious that the entitlement mentality has become too commonplace in modern American culture. Decades ago, the middle class above complained that welfare recipients, minorities, and the poor complained too much about not getting enough handouts.

The feeling of being owed a certain level of comfort is not the exclusive vice of the unwashed anymore. Our whiner of the week is in the ultra-wealthy city of Boca Raton, FL. This weeks Boca Raton News features a letter from a disgruntled local citizen:

• Dear Mr. Berko: I lost about 70 percent of my retirement funds to Bernard Madoff’s ponzi scheme and I blame an organization called Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, or FINRA. I was a broker in Cleveland, where I also read your column, for 32 years and retired here three years ago. Two years ago, I invested with Madoff because I believed his claims and corporate books had been given a clean bill of health by FINRA, the regulatory police at NASDAQ and the New York Stock Exchange. I had a run-in with two FINRA guys because I sent the same Forbes Magazine article to 23 clients. The rules only allow the article (unless it’s approved by our firm’s compliance department) to go to one client. Well, those fellows made my life hell for a month with all sorts of letters and reprimands. If FINRA can discover that I sent 23 clients the same magazine article, they should have discovered irregularities in Madoff’s books. Now, I’m thinking about suing FINRA for malfeasance and misfeasance because they dropped the ball on Madoff. However, I don’t want to front the entire cost myself. I was hoping you would have access to names of other Madoff victims who would be willing to share the cost of this venture. If you will provide their names to me, or give them my name, I’d appreciate it. It’s inconceivable that those in power at FINRA would look the other way when Madoff’s books were examined each year for over a decade. — D.S., Boca Raton, Fla.

Of course, dozens of Madoff victims have become gilded squeaky wheels this year, but this one is particularly notable. First, he was a licensed broker in Indiana for 23 years. Next, he admits to being investigated by the Feds for breaking broker regulations himself. Then, after all of that experience, knowledge, and education, he loses money in the Madoff scandal. “Should have known better” does not begin to cover this.

Apparently, he was not diversified beyond having all his money in Madoff accounts. I wonder what advice about diversification he gave to his clients when he was a broker?

But it does not end there. Not only does he want to sue someone for not protecting him, he does not want to pay for the lawsuit himself!

Consider the stark contrast between “D.S” in Boca, and Thomas Sowell. Think about that the next time you are out among the masses. Look at the faces you see strolling the mall, watching the ball game, or behind the wheel of all the cars. How many D.S.’s are there? How many Thomas Sowell’s? Then remember that all the stuff that the D.S.’s of the world want to take, has to come from people like Thomas Sowell. And you.

~ by Dave on January 26, 2009.

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