A long while back, I spent an evening in San Francisco enjoying the bay. It was a night of cafés, jazz music and fireworks. At the end of the evening I was drawn into an event of showmanship and temptation. A man trained in the art of cons entertained us with shiny baubles to invest our money in. He started small, minor trinkets, but then wowed us with more expensive items. Teaching us to forget our instincts, we traded what we knew we had for the unknown boxes holding other prizes.
Gaining our trust, he kept drawing us deeper into the gamble we’d keep winning in our financial investment. Eventually we lost sight of his reason to be there. He wanted our money, as much as he could get, and he’d con us with our own greed to get it.
I walked away broke. In my hands I carried a heavy vase I had paid way too much for. Many years have since passed, but I still keep that vase on my mantle as a reminder of the lesson I learned. Our economy reflects this same con daily. I wondered how many foreclosed homes in our own neighborhood it would take before we are awakened to the scheme of greed?