MY OWN PRIVATE I OWED

Blog number 264 **** 22 December 2008

When I was in the Air Force stationed at Mather AFB in Sacramento you know where, we were one day called in to an assembly where this guy had a golden opportunity for us Air Force personnel. He would manage a credit union for us, and all he would ask for as payment was the small sum of 2 percent of the deposits, and out of that he would rent the building, pay for all machines and pay all salaries. Good deal, right? Two percent couldn't add up to much. Obviously a philanthropic person.

Anyhow, it got going and into it about a year came another "good deal" only for Air Force personnel. We could borrow a thousand dollars at one and a half percent interest and we would then deposit the thousand we borrowed into the credit union where it would earn us three percent. Wow! How could you lose, right?

They advertised this boon diligently - calling it, "Estate Planning." Posters extolling the virtues of Estate Planning promulgated ubiquitously. Our estate would grow effortlessly once we invested the seed of a borrowed thousand dollars. We were so lucky to have caring civilians looking out for us military. Just like they still do, from what I read in the papers.

I talked to someone on the credit union board once, telling him that it was a fraud, the borrowed amount was one and a half percentage a MONTH, the 3 percent return was for a YEAR. I could tell he thought I was in error somehow, and the fraud went on.

One night I was talking to a friend and he told me what a good deal this "Estate Planning" thing was, and I told him it was a hoax. A scheme.

He says, "No, no. I'm making money on borrowed money."

So I ask, "How much money are you getting for your deposit and how much are you paying for your loan?"

He looked. And he looked sick. He had swallowed hook line and sinker the fiction told by the cheats, never thinking to look at the actual money exchanging hands.

How many were cheated in this way? About half the depositors, maybe. Maybe even more. It was a very popular deal. How many could resist making money on someone else's money? Unfortunately, the average person isn't all that swift.

This phenomena also accounts for the proliferation of "Check Into Cash" stores who cheat the young, the poor, the ignorant and the unwary.

What kind of a person could take advantage of a person that would believe such a crazy story as that someone would loan you money and then pay you to give it back?

Or that stores that charge 300 percent interest are there for YOUR benefit?

People will sell their souls awfully cheap.

Bah! I say.

Humbug! I say also.