[ExI] cart before horse

[spike at rainier66.com]

-----Original Message-----
From: extropy-chat <extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org> On Behalf Of
Anton Sherwood via extropy-chat
...
Subject: Re: [ExI] cart before horse

On 2021-9-17 06:09, spike jones via extropy-chat wrote:
> While that was going on, they discussed the risk that a local 
> constabulary catch this guy carrying a quarter of a million bucks in 
> cash and decide he must be a drug dealer, so the Lockheed guys had a 
> contingency should that happen.

Go on ...

--
*\\*  Anton Sherwood  *\\*  www.bendwavy.org
_______________________________________________



Asset forfeiture was far less an advanced 'technology' in those days and the
constabulary were more trustworthy.

In any company such as Lockheed, we had plenty of friends and connections
within the law enforcement community.  They knew what the Lockheed guys were
doing.  It was all perfectly legal.  No one ever tried to arrest the agent
they had going around buying properties.

Fun aside: the engineering group worked in a big open area, with partitions
to divide somewhat private office space.  I am 6 ft even and didn't need to
stretch to see over the top of the partitions, so we could hear what was
going on even across the space where about 100 of us were working.  When
something noisy happened, such as someone lost their temper and began loudly
berating someone else, heads would pop up everywhere, a phenomenon we called
prairie dogging.

Most of the players in this lucrative real estate game were from that
project where I was working at the time.  Lotta senior guys working that
project.  The ring leader was in the next cubicle from me, so I heard
everything always.  I was in the market for a house at that time, so I found
it most frustrating to listen to all these guys making money hand over fist
while I was left out and losing bid after bid on houses. 

When their real estate guy made a score by flipping a property, he would
call Tony.  I would hear: Oh GREAT!  Good work!  Then within a minute,
another phone a few cubicles away would ring and Tony would say "Joe, we
just made 32 thousand bucks!"  Another minute, two phones would ring, then
four...  

It all came to a sudden end when the earthquake came along and real estate
prices froze for the next five years, after which I could afford a home.

So... yes we know.  The odds are stacked against the poor, and yes we know,
that isn't going to change in the foreseeable.  I have seen it from that
perspective.  I have had the experience of being a homeowner, selling for a
profit, then not having nearly enough for even a down payment in the Bay
area.

spike