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If you’d like to read the story as told by Ponzi himself, his self-published 1936 autobiography The Rise of Mr. Ponzi can be read in its entirety online here: h

If you’d like to read the story as told by Ponzi himself, his self-published 1936 autobiography The Rise of Mr. Ponzi can be read in its entirety online here: https://www.charlesponzi.com/the-rise-of-mr-ponzi https://www.charlesponzi.com/the-rise-of-mr-ponzi > The "racket" of international reply coupons actually fell in my lap like a ripe apple. I did not have to shake the tree to get it. I just reached over, where it had fallen, and took it. It looked good. Luscious. I examined it for flaws. Found none. I had to bite. I wouldn't have been human if I didn't. And a printed version with lots of supplemental material included is available as well: https://despair.com/collections/books/products/the-rise-of-mr-ponzi-charles-ponzis-1937-autobiography https://despair.com/collections/books/products/the-rise-of-m...

the_af 7y ago
Thanks for linking to the autobiography. Just one thing: > "I had to bite. I wouldn't have been human if I didn't." Such are the self-serving justifications of con-men, swindlers and criminals everywhere. "I'm only human", "I was just following orders", "I was weak", "other people would have done the same". Nah, I wouldn't rip off people and lead them to ruin even if I had the chance. Nice try, Mr. Ponzi.
- jacquesm 7y ago
  How many of us have 'I had to pay the mortgage' or 'put the kids through college' as an excuse? Mr. Ponzi is no exception.
  - the_af 7y ago
    I know I haven't and won't. Of course Mr. Ponzi wasn't the first and won't be the last scumbag out there. And scumbags always make excuses for themselves. This is completely different to stealing because you or your kids are hungry, let's not delude ourselves. It reminds me of the lyrics of Pink Floyd's "Dogs": You gotta be crazy, you gotta have a real need You gotta sleep on your toes, and when you're on the street You gotta be able to pick out the easy meat with your eyes closed And then moving in silently, down wind and out of sight You gotta strike when the moment is right without thinking And after a while, you can work on points for style Like the club tie, and the firm handshake A certain look in the eye and an easy smile You have to be trusted by the people that you lie to So that when they turn their backs on you, You'll get the chance to put the knife in
  - tombert 7y ago
    I don't have kids, but I have gotten an eviction notice due to non-payment because I was broke and unemployed for a month a few years ago (with a maxed-out credit card, no less). Even then, when I was at my most desperate, it never occurred to me to try and swindle anyone, or mug anyone, or (as far as I know) anything obviously immoral. I seriously doubt I'm a saint; I think most people don't want to hurt other people. (If anyone is interested in the conclusion of that story, I was able to eventually find a job and after a million calls to the landlord I got him to let me pay a bit later and keep my apartment).
    - jraby3 7y ago
      Most people see themselves as good. The thing is, most people don’t start out with a plan to defraud tens of thousands of people for millions. Even towards the end Ponzi believed he’d pay it back. It starts off with a small lie to yourself - I’ll just use this money to pay him and when the investment pays off it’ll all work out... and then it grows from there. Cognitive dissonance is an amazing quality of the human brain. I recommend reading Mistakes Were Made But Not By Me - fascinating stories of how and why it happens.
      - the_af 7y ago
        I do not doubt there are people for whom it works like that. There are also people who do not start like gamblers, but end up with an out of control addiction. I've known people with "get rich schemes" who ended up lying and stealing from their loved ones. But the self-serving excuse of "I'm only human" is always a lie. That's not being human; that's being a particular, untrustworthy kind of human. Not all of us, or even the majority, are like that. "But it's just my nature" is such a cowardly excuse for lying and cheating.
      - tombert 7y ago
        Fair enough; I certainly wouldn't purposefully hurt anyone (at least not nowadays), and I don't know that I'm willing to extend the benefit of the doubt to Ponzi, but I have certainly done things that have hurt people transitively, or done things that are somewhat self-serving that I convince myself are good for the other person. I'd like to think I haven't really done anything like that since I was a teenager, but as you said, cognitive dissonance is amazing. It's entirely possible that I do things all the time that are horrible.
- mikeash 7y ago
  The international reply coupon racket was legitimate, though. It was kind of shitty, since it was abusing a loophole in the rules to extract money from postal services, but it was legal. In terms of morality, it’s little different from arbitraging stocks. The problem was that this racket sucked, and instead of giving up on it he decided to turn it into a proper scam.
  - conistonwater 7y ago
    He never even began to implement the postal coupon idea, it was a scam from the start. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/in-ponzi-we-trust-64016168/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/in-ponzi-we-trust-640... > Of course, there was no network of agents. Nor, for that matter, did Ponzi expend any effort to corner the market on postal reply coupons. A final audit of his company's assets after the whole business was over turned up $61 worth of the coupons, according to Dunn.
- hinkley 7y ago
  It's a pretty common story for people to discover they have an undiagnosed psychological condition after they have an experience where they say "doesn't everybody do <x>?" and someone says, "No, John, nobody does that." Like, when the rest of us say 'voice in our head', we mean it figuratively, not literally.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]

the_af 7y ago

Thanks for linking to the autobiography. Just one thing: > "I had to bite. I wouldn't have been human if I didn't." Such are the self-serving justifications of con-men, swindlers and criminals everywhere. "I'm only human", "I was just following orders", "I was weak", "other people would have done the same". Nah, I wouldn't rip off people and lead them to ruin even if I had the chance. Nice try, Mr. Ponzi.

jacquesm 7y ago
How many of us have 'I had to pay the mortgage' or 'put the kids through college' as an excuse? Mr. Ponzi is no exception.
- the_af 7y ago
  I know I haven't and won't. Of course Mr. Ponzi wasn't the first and won't be the last scumbag out there. And scumbags always make excuses for themselves. This is completely different to stealing because you or your kids are hungry, let's not delude ourselves. It reminds me of the lyrics of Pink Floyd's "Dogs": You gotta be crazy, you gotta have a real need You gotta sleep on your toes, and when you're on the street You gotta be able to pick out the easy meat with your eyes closed And then moving in silently, down wind and out of sight You gotta strike when the moment is right without thinking And after a while, you can work on points for style Like the club tie, and the firm handshake A certain look in the eye and an easy smile You have to be trusted by the people that you lie to So that when they turn their backs on you, You'll get the chance to put the knife in
- tombert 7y ago
  I don't have kids, but I have gotten an eviction notice due to non-payment because I was broke and unemployed for a month a few years ago (with a maxed-out credit card, no less). Even then, when I was at my most desperate, it never occurred to me to try and swindle anyone, or mug anyone, or (as far as I know) anything obviously immoral. I seriously doubt I'm a saint; I think most people don't want to hurt other people. (If anyone is interested in the conclusion of that story, I was able to eventually find a job and after a million calls to the landlord I got him to let me pay a bit later and keep my apartment).
  - jraby3 7y ago
    Most people see themselves as good. The thing is, most people don’t start out with a plan to defraud tens of thousands of people for millions. Even towards the end Ponzi believed he’d pay it back. It starts off with a small lie to yourself - I’ll just use this money to pay him and when the investment pays off it’ll all work out... and then it grows from there. Cognitive dissonance is an amazing quality of the human brain. I recommend reading Mistakes Were Made But Not By Me - fascinating stories of how and why it happens.
    - the_af 7y ago
      I do not doubt there are people for whom it works like that. There are also people who do not start like gamblers, but end up with an out of control addiction. I've known people with "get rich schemes" who ended up lying and stealing from their loved ones. But the self-serving excuse of "I'm only human" is always a lie. That's not being human; that's being a particular, untrustworthy kind of human. Not all of us, or even the majority, are like that. "But it's just my nature" is such a cowardly excuse for lying and cheating.
    - tombert 7y ago
      Fair enough; I certainly wouldn't purposefully hurt anyone (at least not nowadays), and I don't know that I'm willing to extend the benefit of the doubt to Ponzi, but I have certainly done things that have hurt people transitively, or done things that are somewhat self-serving that I convince myself are good for the other person. I'd like to think I haven't really done anything like that since I was a teenager, but as you said, cognitive dissonance is amazing. It's entirely possible that I do things all the time that are horrible.
mikeash 7y ago
The international reply coupon racket was legitimate, though. It was kind of shitty, since it was abusing a loophole in the rules to extract money from postal services, but it was legal. In terms of morality, it’s little different from arbitraging stocks. The problem was that this racket sucked, and instead of giving up on it he decided to turn it into a proper scam.
- conistonwater 7y ago
  He never even began to implement the postal coupon idea, it was a scam from the start. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/in-ponzi-we-trust-64016168/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/in-ponzi-we-trust-640... > Of course, there was no network of agents. Nor, for that matter, did Ponzi expend any effort to corner the market on postal reply coupons. A final audit of his company's assets after the whole business was over turned up $61 worth of the coupons, according to Dunn.
hinkley 7y ago
It's a pretty common story for people to discover they have an undiagnosed psychological condition after they have an experience where they say "doesn't everybody do <x>?" and someone says, "No, John, nobody does that." Like, when the rest of us say 'voice in our head', we mean it figuratively, not literally.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]