They WANT To Believe!

She came through the door flush with excitement...
"You've gotta see this!"
She'd been "selected" to be a member!
And what a club to belong to... at the top of her list was the name of an NFL Quarterback, the owner of a hoity-toity restaurant, and a very popular local TV personality. These folks certainly lend credence to the venture, right?

She needed to "invest" $1,000...
Write a $500 check and send it to the name at the top of her list, and another $500 to the person that recruited her. Then all she had to do was add her name to the bottom of the list, then go and recruit two new "investors". Recruiting the two new folks would repay her initial investment. Then when her name reached the top of the list, she'd receive $128,000... like the NFL Quarterback whose name was now there.
I asked, "What's being produced here? This is nothing but a pyramid scheme... a money shuffle. Eventually the population of 'greater fools' will dry up and this thing will fall of it's own dead weight"

But she wanted that $128,000 and wrote two $500 checks.
The State Attorney General started his investigation the very next day, and within a month the whole scheme had collapsed, and she received a thousand dollars worth of quick education.
I've looked for links to share with you but it turns out it was a regional thing, and doing so would reveal my location. So would giving you the name of the scam, but be aware... the name was every bit as misleading as is the term "Employee Free Choice Act".

She WANTED to believe. Greed is such a strong drive...
We know the names of Charles Ponzi, Michael Milliken, and Bernie Madoff only because there are large numbers of seemingly intelligent people who ignore the old saw "If it seems too good to be true, it probably is".

So now President(?) Obama tells us his stimulus plan will lead us out of the desert. He tells us hundreds of thousands of jobs will be "saved" under his extraordinary direction.
But... WHAT'S BEING PRODUCED?
So far as I can see, the only thing being produced is bigger government and a larger drag on taxpayers. There's no added value of goods and services here. But there are still lots of folks who WANT TO BELIEVE Obama can do what he claims, so we've not reached the point of collapse quite yet.

Later we'll be able to add a name to our list:
Ponzi, Milliken, Madoff...
Obama.