Greed vs. Gumption

Greed = Bernie Madoff

Bernard Madoff is the gonnif (thief), excuse me, alleged gonnif who structured an enormous Ponzi scheme defrauding investors out of billions of dollars. He is now trying to hang on to the 7 million dollar penthouse, where he currently resides under “house arrest”, along with an additional 62 million dollars in other assets - both of which are apparently in Madoff’s wife Ruth’s name. The Madoffs have been married for around a half a century so the idea that she did not benefit from his fraud stretches credulity. While Ruth Madoff has not been arrested, it is possible that she served as her husband’s bookkeeper, which could put her right in the heart of the criminal activities.

Gumption = Mark Rembert and Taylor Stuckert

The small town of Wilmington, Ohio, in Clinton County, was dealt a crushing economic blow last summer when DHL announced it was closing its air freight business hub in the town. Close to 10,000 folks would be losing their jobs. It was devastating. Enter two young guys: Mark Rembert and Taylor Stuckert. They each had training in the Peace Corps and decided that the best place to put those practices to work, would be in their own home town of Wilmington. They started a blog. They wrote a letter to the editor. They got people talking. Now they have a website called Energize Clinton County. They declared Clinton County a “Green Enterprise Zone” and then they came up with a plan. They are requesting funding under the federal stimulus package for the “largest weatherization campaign in history”. It will lead to employment as well as savings on energy costs for homeowners and businesses.You can read/listen to their story by visiting the NPR website. And you can get a better understanding of the enormity of the economic impact on Wilmington by reading/listening to part one of the NPR story.

Bernard & Ruth Madoff vs. Mark Rembert & Taylor Stuckert
or
a couple of schmucks vs. a couple of mensches

May the mensches of this world always triumph!