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I think this current crop of 20-somethings learned something terrible.

by bb88 2y ago

neilv 2y ago
20-somethings didn't invent fraud. (But don't phrase it like that, or they'll argue the point with you, since they think they invented everything. :)
- bb88 2y ago
  No, but I don't recall a 20 something committing a $175M fraud before this decade. Not on this scale anyway. Elizabeth Holmes was 31 when she was outed. But most of that scandal was created in her 20's. Sam Bankman-Fried was in his 20s along with his girlfriend Caroline Ellison. Billy MacFarland defrauded investors of $26M for the Fyre festival that famously imploded. Charlie Javice was 29 when she defrauded JPMC with Frank. I'm not saying there 20 year-olds didn't defraud mulit-millions in the previous decades to this. I just don't remember any. And this generation has far too much of their share.
  - neilv 2y ago
    What changed? In earlier decades, were nepo babies not as often in a position to do fraud? Or not motivated to do fraud? Or not helped to do fraud?
    - bb88 2y ago
      I don't think people were trusted before the 1990s until they were mid to late thirties. Now it's like VC's throw capital at 20 somethings as if they're wunderkind, when they're not fully mature adults mentally yet. Maybe there was some fraud on Wall Street back then, but those people had more access to capital than others. It's also easy to delude yourself that you deserve all the money -- even if you haven't produced anything of value (Theranos). Or you delude yourself that you're so talented that there's no need for any safeguards (FTX). If there's capital flowing and you're sitting on a pile of cash (which you haven't earned yet only raised), you begin to think you've actually accomplished something when you haven't. And now with crypto, influencers are basically cashing in their popularity. There's so much cash investors have, and TINA -- there is no alternative potentially high yield investments. Before maybe in the 2000s investors would actually, like, you know, put insiders in the company and you know "due diligence" and all that, and not trust the word of a 20-something directly.
      - neilv 2y ago
        Thanks, excellent comments.
  - IncreasePosts 2y ago
    100 years ago, this twenty-something fellow committed fraud substantial enough to almost destroy the economy of Portugal and was probably a major motivator for a coup d'etat that happened a year after his fraud was discovered. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alves_dos_Reis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alves_dos_Reis

I think this current crop of 20-somethings learned something terrible.

by bb88 2y ago

I think this current crop of 20-somethings learned something terrible.

20-somethings didn't invent fraud. (But don't phrase it like that, or they'll argue the point with you, since they think they invented everything. :)

bb88 2y ago
No, but I don't recall a 20 something committing a $175M fraud before this decade. Not on this scale anyway. Elizabeth Holmes was 31 when she was outed. But most of that scandal was created in her 20's. Sam Bankman-Fried was in his 20s along with his girlfriend Caroline Ellison. Billy MacFarland defrauded investors of $26M for the Fyre festival that famously imploded. Charlie Javice was 29 when she defrauded JPMC with Frank. I'm not saying there 20 year-olds didn't defraud mulit-millions in the previous decades to this. I just don't remember any. And this generation has far too much of their share.
- neilv 2y ago
  What changed? In earlier decades, were nepo babies not as often in a position to do fraud? Or not motivated to do fraud? Or not helped to do fraud?
  - bb88 2y ago
    I don't think people were trusted before the 1990s until they were mid to late thirties. Now it's like VC's throw capital at 20 somethings as if they're wunderkind, when they're not fully mature adults mentally yet. Maybe there was some fraud on Wall Street back then, but those people had more access to capital than others. It's also easy to delude yourself that you deserve all the money -- even if you haven't produced anything of value (Theranos). Or you delude yourself that you're so talented that there's no need for any safeguards (FTX). If there's capital flowing and you're sitting on a pile of cash (which you haven't earned yet only raised), you begin to think you've actually accomplished something when you haven't. And now with crypto, influencers are basically cashing in their popularity. There's so much cash investors have, and TINA -- there is no alternative potentially high yield investments. Before maybe in the 2000s investors would actually, like, you know, put insiders in the company and you know "due diligence" and all that, and not trust the word of a 20-something directly.
    - neilv 2y ago
      Thanks, excellent comments.
- IncreasePosts 2y ago
  100 years ago, this twenty-something fellow committed fraud substantial enough to almost destroy the economy of Portugal and was probably a major motivator for a coup d'etat that happened a year after his fraud was discovered. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alves_dos_Reis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alves_dos_Reis