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Do you think financial crimes should be treated as murder?
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?
8 Answers
- Anonymous1 decade agoFavorite Answer
well, murder has a pretty clear definition. but i suppose a million dollar rip off could be considered a capital crime, one which might earn execution. it would probably make them think twice if their life was on the line.
- 1 decade ago
I understand the point you're trying to make, but stealing money, no matter how much, cannot be equated to taking a human life. They are two completely different things with completely different implications. Killing someone ends their existence entirely; their death affects their families, friends, employers, etc. in absolutely life-shattering ways and ways that cannot be anticipated. You can't reverse a death.
Taking money, though it can affect the family, friends, and other people connected to an individual, is at least partly reversible in most cases (Madoff was for the most part outstanding), and leaves that person still breathing and alive and able to actually do something about it.
This is hard to explain. But material wealth and human life simply cannot be considered the same in a court of law or in any context. Money is a quantifiable loss; death is an emotional, irreversible, and fundamental event that takes a person out of the world completely.
- sweet.carolineLv 71 decade ago
No. It is not the same at all. people can recover from financial loss but can't from murder. White collar crimes do hurt people and destroy lives but they can still come back and recover. Usually financial crimes are not as harmful because people with investments taken can begin again or file bankruptcy or have money to invest. If someone is dead, can't do any more and families are devastated much more. It is no comparison. How about burglary? There person is really upset for ages as home is no longer safe. I think that is worse than some of the financial crimes.
Madoff didn't kill anyone. We can start over on many things. There may be people who are iwthout insurance and that can lead to death so it is serious, but not the same.
- Poohcat1Lv 71 decade ago
No. Having money is not the determination for life...therefore losing ones money will not cost a person their life. It may cause them to live a different style of life, but not their life itself.
We can not measure the happiness level our life brings to us by the amount we have in the bank.
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- 1 decade ago
I don't think anyone should be killed for their crime. Prison time of course. Not life by anymeans. It isn't killing someone and that is that. It may be bad and screw up the lives of others but it's not murder.
- Anonymous1 decade ago
if you are going to die because you lost all your money, rob someone and take their money. you come first in your life, no one else, **** everything else when it comes to survival. but yes, that's murder, it's just indirect murder.
