WATCH YOUR POCKET

Someone called Bernie Madoff died recently.

You may never have heard of him; and you’ll be better off for that because he might have lured you and your life savings into the most devastating of all the Ponzi schemes ever carried out since the originator, Charles Ponzi, designed the formula that blends human greed with naivety and serious misfortune. Ponzi and Pyramid schemes are similar in that they deceive innocent investors into believing they will make a crazy amount of money. But, instead, the perpetrator simply uses the capital received from new investors to pay part, or all, out to earlier investors. Robbing Peter to pay Paul; an absolute disaster waiting to happen. In Ponzi schemes the perpetrator deals directly, and often very personally, with investors; a sociopath who doesn’t care that those people are destined to lose all their money. Pyramid schemes involve the recruitment of existing investors to solicit investment from others, with money from new investors used to reward the recruiting investors. It spreads; hence the pyramid. Disaster beckons.

These schemes have always offered returns on investment way above existing norms in the investment world. The rates of return promised are a lie because of the way incoming investment money is stolen to create fictitious returns. The schemes carry a massive risk of implosion, but there are people who are gullible enough to invest in them. They don’t deserve to lose the shirt off their back; but that’s what happens. Such despicable schemes have existed in Eswatini and people have lost lots of money. We trust that the regulations and monitoring processes are now in place that will protect emaSwati from being lured into similar schemes in future.
Society elsewhere takes a very dim view – especially of Ponzi schemes – and it certainly did with Bernie Madoff’s version. Companies and many individuals lost a total of US$65 billion, yes billion (around E1 000 billion!). In 2009, at the age of 71, Madoff was sentenced to 150 years imprisonment, a similar penalty to what he’d have got if he’d murdered 100 people. Well he actually ‘killed’ the lives of thousands, didn’t he?  Others will replace him so watch out!

Possession

There is an old expression – ‘money does not bring you happiness’, my reply could be – well, let me have a try. But seriously, the possession of money will not per se bring real happiness. And if money is your god then you will never have enough anyway. That’s when you notice the obnoxious characteristics of the greedy chasing more and more money. If you are rewarded with substantial financial resources for conducting a legitimate and profitable activity – there are hundreds of examples – good luck to you, and you’ll enjoy it. Other means of acquisition of money will never be as rewarding. The best example is a lottery winner. After the fortnight of inebriation, coping with the shock, you will experience a silent resentment among the non-winners, and be besieged with requests for money, ultimately having no idea who your real friends are. At the end of that spectrum, are the seriously dishonest. And that’s where society lets itself down badly. The illegitimate acquisition of cash should lead to accountability and disgrace, but, sadly, in most countries, it never does.

So what does bring happiness? Here’s a suggested checklist of contributors. The first is someone or more whom you love. That emotion is hugely rewarding, especially if you focus on what you can give, rather than take, in the relationship. The second is someone or more who love you; the deep pleasure of that needs no explaining. True happiness also demands a good state of health, combined with the confidence of having more than a few years of sustained health ahead. A strong religious faith is for many an important component. You also need a career or other time-consuming pursuit that you enjoy, as well as a genuine interest in the world around you. Money does come into the equation. You need it to live but I would argue that you only need enough and a bit more after meeting the bills of day-to-day living. If you can’t be happy in that status you will certainly not be any happier as the bank balance increases. How are you doing so far?

Very sadly a significant proportion of every society in the world, but especially the poor countries, is in constant distress, unable to finance their daily needs. So how can we expect them to be happy? Especially when they live in full view of the rampant, yet often unchallenged dishonesty and avarice of many others. It is the countries of the world, strong in social welfare – especially in Scandinavia – where the happiness quotient is the highest. Nobody lacks food, healthcare, education and a roof over the head. Those countries look after their poor and don’t tolerate the greedy.

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