OPM - Grifter Edition

In the late 80s and early 90s, the collapse of the Soviet Union spawned a wave of immigration to the US from Russia and an assortment of Former Soviet Republics and formerly Iron Curtain nations. Many gravitated to the Brighton Beach section of Brooklyn and adjacent neighborhoods. My family’s restaurant was located close to that epicenter, and its 24 hour nature brought a large clientele from those lands.

We learned quite a few things about the cultural attitudes that came with them. Many were “good for business.” They ate well, drank a lot, and were generally respectful of the business (more so than some other demographics, there was a “don’t s—t where you eat” and “take beefs outside” ethos, even though there’s always some degree of peril with drunks and young meatheads). One in particular - a “transactional” mindset that was much stronger than we have here - came to mind due to recent events in the news.

Back in the day, those neighborhoods in southern Brooklyn were infested with medical offices, many of which were no-fault insurance fraud mills. Due to certain rules regarding the filing of automotive medical claims in New York, enterprising Eastern Europeans milked and bilked the system for untold millions. If you pop “1990s no fault fraud in new york” into a Google AI search, you’ll get the lowdown. That those fraud mills were populated by the aforementioned Eastern European emigres was no coincidence. People who lived their lives in nations that require a constant hustle to survive were like kids in a candy store in the US. The grift was easy, and went on for years before the powers-that-be finally tightened up the loopholes that made it easy. Of course, it was only a small segment of that population that engaged in this activity, but many of the law-abiding majority shrugged it off as “this is what happens.”

Mind you, all this took place in an era where it was culturally permitted to be suspicious of Eastern European criminals. If you want to know who it’s safe to criticize in a culture, look at the contemporary bad guys in movies and TV cop shows.

Jump ahead to today, with the on-going expose of truly massive fraud and theft of tax dollars in Minnesota. Current estimates are running as high as $9B, and at the heart of this fraud is the Somali community there. As with the Eastern Europeans I mentioned above, I’m sure that the actual fraudsters are a minority. I’d also bet that the prevailing attitude is “this is what happens,” because Somalia is one of the most corrupt nations in the world. The difference here is that the powers-that-be appear to have buried their heads deep in the sand while the grift went on, and I think it’s safe to say they did so because it would be “un-woke” to criticize a community granted favored status by the Left’s mandarins.

Indeed, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, who may be in deep doo-doo over this widespread and years-long abuse of taxpayer money, is pushing back by calling the exposing of the fraud a long con perpetrated by Trump:

or “white supremacy.”

When all else fails, play the race card.

When you get angrier at the unmasking of a fraud than at the fraud itself, you are part of the problem.

YouTuber Nick Shirley, whose video about the fraud has gone viral, argues that Minnesota’s Somali population is large enough to represent a significant voting bloc for the embattled Democrat, and the price of those votes is the governor turning a blind eye to this massive grift.

Sounds about right to me.

That the scams seem so ham-fisted and amateurish, but also so widespread and so widely dismissed, is a massive indictment of both the Minnesota government and the Fourth Estate.

The same Fourth Estate that has been gnashing its teeth about the high distrust we the people have for it appears more upset at the uncovering than the grift itself.

So nice of you to affirm, yet again, the narrative that you’re shills for your preferred party rather than real journalists.

Meanwhile, even among the “government should do good things” crowd, there is a growing undercurrent of “please be more careful with our money.” Many of DOGE’s critics focused on the blunt nature of the cuts that hit what they considered good outlays, rather than defending the absurd outlays of taxpayer money that DOGE exposed. I’d bet that good people who consider themselves progressive are, at their core, quietly upset by the rampant abuses in Minnesota even as they say nothing or deflect away in a show of solidarity with “their team.”

At the heart of all this is the endlessly-repeated first lesson of this blog. Everything is about Other People’s Money (OPM). If a pool of OPM is large, it will draw attention. If it is easy to dip into, dipping will occur. If the risk of dipping is low, the dipping will be more common and more brazen. If the dipping benefits politicians, they will turn a blind eye.

Herein lies the peril with all government do-gooderism. Whether it be “just a bit of help” or welfare-state or full-on socialism, the incentives toward mischief are legion and inevitable.

When politicians turn a blind eye toward mischief because it benefits them, the incentives get stronger.

Finally, it has to be said: People who come out of lawless or grifting or “hustle” cultures are certainly going to be more apt to grift when they come here. This is yet another example of why multiculturalism cannot work, why all who come to this country (and I write this as a supporter of robust immigration) should be expected to assimilate to and embrace its norms.

And be held accountable when they don’t.

No matter any claim of protected or oppressed or “victim” identity status.

Anything less is national suicide.

Finally, before we concede an additional cent (RIP, the penny, victim of inflation) of tax revenue, we the People should demand they do a (much) better job managing what they already take. Yes, that includes California’s proposed wealth tax, which is being floated as a revenue source despite losing tens of billions to on-going fraud and waste. Government already takes in plenty of money. It’s past time we demand it be better managed.

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A footnote. I recently caught a snippet from the Whatever podcast where host Andrew Wilson asked a handful of immigrant or child-of-immigrant young women whether, in the event of a conflict between America and their former countries, which side they would take. They all said they’d side against America. I get that this is what the “cool kids” are expected to think, and as a free speech absolutist I defend their right to answer hypotheticals however they wish, but this reflects a major problem in modern culture. Hating the nation where you live and prosper and chose to come to in pursuit of greater happiness may play well in some circles, but it is a poison. Immigrants of previous generations came here to be Americans, not to hate on America even as they benefited from America. Criticize the government all you want - there is nothing more American than that - but don’t conflate the government with the nation itself.