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In Reply to: Re: Quote of the week posted by Joseph on July 23, 2002 at 09:01:02:
there has been this question about why FGAs didn't get out sooner.
Perhaps it would be like people who got conned by some greedy stockbroker to use their life savings, and hawk their house and jewelry to invest in some great promising upcoming stock that would pay off by 1993.
Times get rough, but you hang on, waiting for that big reward. You live miserably, and your loved ones suffer, but you say, "don't worry, 1993's almost here, just wait and things will get better." In the mean time, your stockbroker admonishes you to stay strong, and tells you the "darkest hour is just before dawn" and feeds you all kinds of brochures and information, none of which you really understand, but he has you convinced he's studied this stuff so much better than you and he knows what he's talking about...
Next thing you know, 1993 comes by and nothing happens and he says, "market condidtions have changed slightly. You're still going to get your nice big fat payoff, but things are delayed by just a few years according to our new data. Give me some more money so you don't lose your original investment. Really sorry, but I love you and care about you and yours..."
And it goes on and on... until one day you decide to dump your investment (which returns you minus zero), and rely on other means to get ahead in life. Oh the whole thing has taken its toll and destroyed your life and hurt your loved ones... they were cheated out of a normal full life you might have been able to offer them if you hadn't been so stupid to keep hanging on...
When you finally get your act together and do some homework and get some information from other sources, and realize you've been conned, and you think you're going to go after your crooked stock broker for violations... you discover you never knew his real name, that he's moved off-shore, has fancy lawyers, and a good defense strategy.
Aren't we who didn't get out soon enough, similar to people who should have sold their stock a long time ago? And yet there are millions of people who follow a stock all the way down to floor level hoping it will turn around, thinking they might waste their original investment if they pull out prematurely. Hell, I've even met people who think it's their duty to stay with a crashing stock because they don't want to be irresponsible and create a panic or be part of the cause for sinking the price of the stock. Kinda like when we got convinced to stay in the Family for the brethren's sake or the sheep's sake, etc, isn't it?
*sigh*
