Madoff

Every time you hear of a hard-working person's life savings being wiped out, you can blame scumbags like Bernard Madoff pictured above. People like Madoff make life disproportionately difficult for the less fortunate. Back in the day, if you stole another man's horse, you were shot on the spot. Today, in the U.S., you can be put behind bars for years for stealing small amounts of money, but the penalty for stealing billions is almost nonexistant.
It is our opinion that if Madoff repaid every penny he stole from the system and spent the remainder of his life in solitary confinement, this would not be nearly enough to repay society for the damage he has caused. Economic systems rely entirely on trust. Without trust, a dollar is a worthless piece of paper. It's only because you trust that it has value that you're willing to accept it in return for your work. People like Madoff destroy this trust, and destabilize the economy and our nation's security in the process. In Madoff's case, this destruction was in the amount of $50 billion. That's nearly 10% of the government's $700B bailout package. The amount of destruction Madoff has caused to the public's trust in our financial system is unfathomable. It would only take 14 people like Madoff to reverse the entire benefit of the $700B bailout package, costing each American $5,000 in additional taxes this year.
Madoff stole $357 from each hard-working, tax-paying American, and for this he is confined to his $7 million Manhattan home (that we're now paying for), with the right to leave at any time with permission. Simply unthinkable. Just unthinkable. We reward these people. What the hell has happened to this country?