The Bernard Madoff scandal and the cry of public outrage may seem awfully familiar, yet there is intensity in this outrage unlike any other before it. After all in a world fraught with high profile corporate and company embezzlement should we really be that surprised? I believe what has caused the Madoff scandal to inspire such cries of outrage is perhaps the faces and the stories that we have seen of Madoff's victims. We see the senior couple who saved all of their lives, so that they could retire worry free and we see the couple who has lost their home, the home that they have sacrificed everything for, saving for years. These are the people that make this story hit so close to home. These are the faces of us all and most of us can see ourselves in their shoes, investing, saving, doing what all responsible adults are told to do, investing in their futures, only to discover that their life savings have lined the pockets of the very people they entrusted their money to.
It is difficult to understand the great motivator that is the insatiable greed for more and more money and the fact that enough is never enough. We can look at the pathology of those that commit these types of crimes searching for some insight into why one would risk everything simply for monetary gain. Certainly we can on some level understand the pathology behind the thief who may have nothing, and may be stealing to feed a family. This is by no means an excuse, but any reasonable person can see and understand their motivation. It is the futility in trying to understand the motivation of those who seem to have everything, but feel they must have more. I suppose one could label Bernard Madoff a sociopath, lacking a conscious and the inability to feel empathy for those he swindled or feel remorse for his actions. Perhaps such massive amounts of wealth are similar to a drug, where money becomes the addiction. I believe there is a psychological element in the Madoffs of the world where they come to view those not in their world as less than human and by dehumanizing their victims they can commit such acts free from guilt. Understanding the mind set of these so called white collar criminals would probably not change anything, nor would it put the money back in the accounts of all the poor victims, but as a society we cannot help to question the reasons behind the heinous acts that some commit on their fellow man for the almighty dollar. Money may indeed be the root of all evil.
