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I use the word because, based on his actions, I think he does not have empathy for other people. He knowingly defrauded thousands of people, often depleting all
by scott_s 10y ago
I use the word because, based on his actions, I think he does not have empathy for other people. He knowingly defrauded thousands of people, often depleting all of their savings. The scale of his fraud, and the length of time he perpetuated it, is staggering.
- FireBeyond 10y agoRight, empathy or sympathy would have meant that among other options, in his continued lies to investors, "We made a very bad trade, got into Company X, who went bankrupt / were delisted". He could have shut it down. He chose not to.
- Dylan16807 10y agoBrains don't handle scale well. Defrauding a thousand people can be easier empathy-wise than defrauding a single person, because it's a statistic rather than an individual. You cannot use the total scale in trying to judge whether someone has empathy. The impulse to associate 'bad actions' with 'inherently bad people' can make it harder for people to realize when they are acting badly and to pull out. http://www.npr.org/2012/05/01/151764534/psychology-of-fraud-why-good-people-do-bad-things http://www.npr.org/2012/05/01/151764534/psychology-of-fraud-...
- wmil 10y agoMadoff was quite unusual because he was very actively involved in the upperclass Jewish philanthropic community. It's also where most of his victims came from. That's one of the reasons he was able to get away with it for so long. People assumed that he wouldn't steal from members of his own community like that. So most observers assumed he found a way to front run trades on his other funds without getting caught, and were looking for evidence of that.