General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhat if you wanted to be a crook in America, what's the best way to do that?
First - Don't worry about robbing banks
Just own one and run it into the ground while threatening to take the American economy with you. Seeing how credit and the flow of capital is tied to the very economy itself, the Government will throw more money at you, hand-over-fist, than you'll know what to do with and also with very few strings attached
That's a joke, right? Because you know what to do with all that filthy loot... mansions and strippers, baby!
Remember: Think BIG!
Second - Lie BIG and lie OFTEN
Buy some news outlets, hire professional liars who work for professional lie factories to go on those news outlets. Call them "Think Tanks", that's a nifty sounding official name, that's the ticket. But most of all appeal to the people's combination of pious self-righteousness mixed with low self-esteem, bigotry, lack of extensive formal education, unwillingness to cooperated with each other, greed, nativism and irrational fears.
Make sure to portray positive and helpful people, minorities, women and children as losers. Your fans will eat it all up.
Hire a paranoid lunatic with a chalk board and a corpulent, drug-addicted loudmouth with delusions of grandeur as your primary spokespeople. If these guys can't get your point across, nobody will.
Remember: "A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes." - Mark Twain
Third - Buy lots of politicians.
They're cheap and easy and come in packaged by the dozen. Since you're out to screw over as many people as possible, nothing works as well as a gaggle of greedy, pandering politicians to line your pockets with.
Remember: The only difference between a prostitute and a politician is that one is paid to screw someone else and the other is paid to screw someone else OVER!
And lastly - Sit back and watch your money roll in. Make sure that it's listed as capital gains. As a big time crook, enjoy the benefits of having a tax code that's tailored for the likes of you. Only a 15% marginal tax rate for that kind of income. Also, send your money on vacation to places like Switzerland and the Cayman Islands! And if that isn't enough for you, you can even chuck your own citizenship away and become one with the rest of the world. (Insert extravagant hand motion here)
Who needs losers like Americans anyway? They're people who can even bother to vote for their own best interests most of the time
Because they can easily be convinced of becoming fans of a crook like you.
Remember: You'll be their HERO if you CROOK it like a BOSS, baby!
Edited to add cool ass drawing
leveymg
(36,418 posts)Or, simply take over a bank, use its assets to buy a bunch of naked shorts and CDS, hold onto a bunch of T-Bills and fail to deliver them to the Repo Market on a critical trading day. That should kill the market-maker and crash a bunch of markets, just like the September 15, 2008 death of Lehmman Bros. by AIG, Citi, and Goldman, along with a syndicate of other global banks and hedge funds. Then, lay back and wait for Tim Geithner to deliver your multi-trillion $ bailout.
Tierra_y_Libertad
(50,414 posts)Initech
(100,068 posts)BOG PERSON
(2,916 posts)because if you have the resources to (1) found a bank and (2) pay intellectuals to shill for you, then you are already a successful crook.
librechik
(30,674 posts)hey it's easy after that! The opportunities just walk in the door!
Rex
(65,616 posts)make sure you know someone in the BFEE.
raouldukelives
(5,178 posts)Failing that. Try to get a job helping them in some way or at the very least invest as much as possible with them. Shop at as many corporate owned outlets as possible. They appreciate the support. Especially in today's troubled world of awareness of pollution & climate change. They like to know there are lots of people out there who still don't believe in it or at least are willing to dismiss it for now and make a good profit off it while they still have time.
Javaman
(62,521 posts)write a book with at a 3rd grade reading level aimed at people who want the "truth" and not facts. (grammar is not important, nor is spelling)
That's how most of the right wing blowhards make their bucks these days.
Then do the circuit of right wing outfits, all at a fee (of course), and gain a following of mouth breathing zealots.
Rinse and repeat.
Remember, it's not quality for the right wing morons, it's always been about quantity. Then release book after book. It won't matter to the morons that it's the same retreaded tired bullshit, because they have virtually no long term memory. They will continue to eat it up as gospel and that it's new and insightful!