Billionaire kills himself after losses on VW

[c1ue]

Re: Billionaire kills himself after losses on VW

1. Throwing oneself in front of a train is an EXTREMELY rare form of suicide. (I am a physician and am painfully familiar with these statistics)

Not in Japan it isn't.

In fact the Chuo train line - station at Koganei is well known as a good place to do the deed.

In the Bay Area, the Caltrain line right around Burlingame seems to hit someone every other month.

[oddlots]

Re: Billionaire kills himself after losses on VW

Does anyone else feel uncomfortable with the callous treatment of suicide that's showing up around here these days? Splitting hairs about how common throwing yourself in front of a train is? Self righteous indignation on behalf of a family no one here has ever met? I think we all know the people most responsible for this mess - your favourite FIRE CEO, a Central Banker or two, the mortgage sharks that laid waste to Cleveland for example - are unlikely to show up as suicides, right? The most likely candidates to my mind are those that actually took their responsibilities seriously and so were especially devastated by their own mis-judgements in the very cognitively challenging environment that is discussed daily on this site. There's a strange sort of triumphalism about distancing oneself from these purported "losers" that seems small-spirited to me. Doesn't bode well for the site heading into the maelstrom.

[GRG55]

Re: Billionaire kills himself after losses on VW

Does anyone else feel uncomfortable with the callous treatment of suicide that's showing up around here these days? Splitting hairs about how common throwing yourself in front of a train is? Self righteous indignation on behalf of a family no one here has ever met? I think we all know the people most responsible for this mess - your favourite FIRE CEO, a Central Banker or two, the mortgage sharks that laid waste to Cleveland for example - are unlikely to show up as suicides, right? The most likely candidates to my mind are those that actually took their responsibilities seriously and so were especially devastated by their own mis-judgements in the very cognitively challenging environment that is discussed daily on this site. There's a strange sort of triumphalism about distancing oneself from these purported "losers" that seems small-spirited to me. Doesn't bode well for the site heading into the maelstrom.

I imagine virtually every one of us knows someone who has suffered from depression, and likely a fair number of us know someone who took their own life. For those who have not experienced the former it may be near impossible to understand the demons that the latter were wrestling with.

Unfortunately the search for convenient scapegoats, the ability of those in power who are most responsible to publicly deflect that responsibility, and our now deeply ingrained societal value of using money/wealth and celebrity as the primary measures of "success", suggests this is far from over. As the Madoff example is showing us, wealth turns to dust, celebrity gives way to notoriety, thousands have their lives turned upside down...and the sociopaths survive.

[FRED]

Re: Billionaire kills himself after losses on VW

Always remember: the bad guys never kill themselves.

[LargoWinch]

Re: Billionaire kills himself after losses on VW

Not in Japan it isn't.

In fact the Chuo train line - station at Koganei is well known as a good place to do the deed.

In the Bay Area, the Caltrain line right around Burlingame seems to hit someone every other month.

Agreed.

I have spent some time in Japan and I can tell you that the huge mirrors facing the commuters across from the subway tracks are not for make-up or hair styling: they are designed to have jumpers coming to their senses by having them witnessing their imminent death.