Life

Epic Time

Last Updated on February 6, 2022

When I learned of the sentence for Bernard Madoff, the man accused of the biggest swindling job in U.S. history, I couldn’t help being struck by the patent absurdity of it.&nbsp  Madoff got 150 years of jail time.

Why?

He’s 71.&nbsp  The current life expectancy in the United States is about 78 years, but that’s actually for people who are born today.&nbsp  People born 71 years ago faces a shorter life expectancy; in fact, he may already have outlived the expected life he’d have had when he was born.

But let’s say he lives another 30 years.&nbsp  He’d be 101, with 120 years left to go.&nbsp  It’s an extremely safe bet that there’s no way he’d live to be 221 years of age.&nbsp  But what if, somehow, he did?&nbsp  Would they really wheel a 221-year-old man out of jail to start his life anew?

There’s something wrong with this picture when we have to come up with an impossibly-long number of years when we mean “life.”&nbsp  But we can’t say “life” because a life sentence, almost always, isn’t.

There are times when I wonder whether such a defendant ought to be given the right to be euthanized.&nbsp  I realize that he didn’t murder anyone, so the death penalty wasn’t really an option.&nbsp  Then again, he robbed the “happily ever after” portion of many people’s golden years.

And back in December, we learned that one of Madoff’s investors had been found dead in a possible suicide.&nbsp  If the suicide were the result of the loss of all that money in Madoff’s scheme, is Madoff responsible for that death?&nbsp  I know, it’s a big gray area, because you’d almost have to know that the person committed suicide solely because of the money and would never have done so if his path had never crossed with Madoff’s.&nbsp  Those aren’t things that would be easily proven in any real way.

But one wonders how much jail time the swindling of others’ life savings really is worth.&nbsp  A life sentence for an already-elderly man, somehow, just doesn’t seem like near enough.

the authorPatrick
Patrick is a Christian with more than 30 years experience in professional writing, producing and marketing. His professional background also includes social media, reporting for broadcast television and the web, directing, videography and photography. He enjoys getting to know people over coffee and spending time with his dog.