[bratticus]

Financial crisis takes human toll
By MATT MOORE
AP BUSINESS WRITER

BERLIN -- His spirit broken by financial fears, German billionaire Adolf Merckle took his own life this week - becoming the latest high-profile casualty of a global economic crisis that already has claimed the lives of executives in Europe and the U.S.

Merckle, a respected businessmen with a wife and four children, jumped in front of a train in the town of Blaubeuren in southwestern Germany, officials said Tuesday.
... snip ...

[bratticus]

I heard it was really gnarly
[flash width=480 height=295]http://www.youtube.com/v/OfrNwRl5xrM[/flash]

[steam_cannon]

How very...
[flash width=480 height=295]http://www.youtube.com/v/2LkFNZauk90[/flash]

[MrBean]

Last deed: disturb public transportation and cause mental trauma to a train engineer. How very nice of him.

[ReverseEngineer]

So how do you think Trump will off himself? How about Paris Hilton? Can we work up an Award for most creative Pigman Suicide?

Reverse Engineer

[auscanman]

What a sad spectacle it is when your net worth is all that makes life worth living!

[steam_cannon]

What a sad spectacle it is when your net worth is all that makes life worth living!

Who knows... Maybe his wife only loved his ability to bring home the
bread. When he didn't have it anymore, ya know, maybe she was
going to leave him and he couldn't handle losing his family. This stuff
happens. So maybe he killed himself over losing money, maybe over
losing love or his family. I don't know, the guy could be shallow or
maybe he wasn't so shallow after all. Whatever the case, I'm sure he
was in a lot of psychological pain when he made the choice he did.

We try to joke about these things so they don't seem so bad, but
reality is tough and all joking aside I'm sure he was a guy feeling all
sorts of pain.

[ReverseEngineer]

all joking aside I'm sure he was a guy feeling all
sorts of pain.

Oh the agony! The Lamborghini repoed, the Chalet in the Alps foreclosed on and your 18 year old Swedish trophy wife shagging the pool boy in the Master Bedroom. The enormity of the tragedies facing this man were just too much to bear.

Think of it like putting down a lame horse. Like the racehorse without four good legs, the only value a Pigman without money has is as Dogmeat. The new flavor in Soylent Alpo: Pigman for Puppies! LOL.

Reverse Engineer

[auscanman]

Who knows... Maybe his wife only loved his ability to bring home the bread.

That's essentially an offshoot of his net worth being all that made his life worth living. Everything in his life hinged on his high net worth, just as it does for countless others.

[the48thronin]

Who knows... Maybe his wife only loved his ability to bring home the bread.

That's essentially an offshoot of his net worth being all that made his life worth living. Everything in his life hinged on his high net worth, just as it does for countless others.

+1

[benzoil]

What a sad spectacle it is when your net worth is all that makes life worth living!

Oh. I don't know. Maybe if more capitalists had a sense of shame and/or honor then we would be in less of a mess right now. (Not saying that's way the man did it, but it'd be a more interesting reason than being suddenly poor.)

[ReverseEngineer]

What a sad spectacle it is when your net worth is all that makes life worth living!

Oh. I don't know. Maybe if more capitalists had a sense of shame and/or honor then we would be in less of a mess right now. (Not saying that's way the man did it, but it'd be a more interesting reason than being suddenly poor.)

"Capitalist" and "Honor" in the same sentence is an Oxymoron. "Pigman" and "Suicidal" is now a Redundancy

Reverse Engineer

[burn0gas]

Interestingly... he was born during the Great Depression... and died during the Great Depression II

[idiom]

Maybe he was invested with MAdoff?

Maybe his net worth had gone underwater by a billion or two?

The personal shame of losing a bunch of money might be pretty significant, more so than the tradgedy of not be wealthy.

Or he could owe a lot of money to unsavoury types.

Or maybe he just had a nihilistic epihpany and decided to indulge his love of trains.

[steam_cannon]

Who knows... Maybe his wife only loved his ability to bring home the bread.

That's essentially an offshoot of his net worth being all that made his life worth living. Everything in his life hinged on his high net worth, just as it does for countless others.

Yeah he might not have known it, just like others...

Think of it like putting down a lame horse. Like the racehorse without four good legs, the only value a Pigman without money has is as Dogmeat. The new flavor in Soylent Alpo: Pigman for Puppies!

An entertaining position to take. But I'll still think it's sad that this happens and when it happens there ain't nothing good about it.

A man killed himself. He was rich. If he were not, his death would not have been noticed. However the hopeless, distracted masses that buy up other people's troubles pay for this kind of news. It sells media space. Pain delivers impressions. You have obviously been impressed, so you have been delivered. To guys just like Merckle. People like Merckle are probably smarter than you. That's why they are rich. Capitalism rewards smart people. So consider Merckle an example. Our future.

ReverseEngineer, you sound angry. I usually like your posts, good takes on energy, the future etc. You're not Cashmere or whatshisname? They disappeared when the SHTF and everyone . . . well, everyone just kept posting

+1

[eastbay]

At the moment he died he was still unbelievably wealthy, maybe not #44, but somewhere around the top one or two hundred people on earth.

There must be more to this story... something best kept quiet.

[threadbear]

At the moment he died he was still unbelievably wealthy, maybe not #44, but somewhere around the top one or two hundred people on earth.

There must be more to this story... something best kept quiet.

Somebody was looking for him. They were going to torture him to death. They let him know it. Same with some of the other "suicides"

[threadbear]

You don't mess around with the Russian mafia.

[eastbay]

At the moment he died he was still unbelievably wealthy, maybe not #44, but somewhere around the top one or two hundred people on earth.

There must be more to this story... something best kept quiet.

Somebody was looking for him. They were going to torture him to death. They let him know it. Same with some of the other "suicides"

Well yes anything's possible but I hadn't thought of anything quite like that at all.

I was thinking of something... very personal. It could be just about anything, I suppose.