Prepare yourself for the disappearing white man syndrome.

[The Backlash Cometh]

They no longer jump off buildings, they just take a drive somewhere, abandon the car, never to be found, probably starting new lives somewhere else.

What happens when you're youngish (under 55) and you've been to the top, traveling all over the world, taking luxury vacations, living in luxury homes and have nothing but an economic crash looming ahead and accountability for bad decisions?

Well, maybe this will be the first in many such stories:

Exec's Vanishing Mystery Yields No Clues
Sunday March 16, 12:35 am ET
By Jon Gambrell, Associated Press Writer
Clinton Library Builder's CFO Vanishes, Leaving Questions, No Clues

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) -- The stress of restructuring the construction company that built the Clinton Presidential Library gave John Glasgow every reason to run away.
A seven-figure salary, a chance to buy part of a firm jointly owned by department-store chain Dillard's Inc. and a life lived in good spirits gave him every reason to stay.

Glasgow has been missing since before sunup Jan. 28; his car was found abandoned the next day at a state park. Family and police say it's impossible to tell whether Glasgow killed himself, was abducted or left to start a new life elsewhere. His family said the easygoing 45-year-old felt overwhelmed and anxious about a company audit, but the company said it found no money missing. The police say there is no evidence of foul play, but no clues to his whereabouts, either.

"He may be under some kind of compulsion ... some kind of blackmail, that's a scenario you could dream up," his brother Roger Glasgow said. "We're not suggesting any of these scenarios because we just don't know. But it does open up a Pandora's box of possibilities."

John Glasgow was the chief financial officer of CDI Contractors LLC of Little Rock. The firm, owned by Dillard's and the estate of co-founder Bill Clark, built or remodeled many of Dillard's 300-plus department stores and put up some of Arkansas' signature projects, including Clinton's library and the headquarters of Heifer International. CDI last year had estimated sales last year of $432.9 million. Dillard's Inc. had 2007 sales of $7.81 billion.


http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080316/executive_vanishes.html

[tekisui]

1. So long!

[Breeze54]

2. Not just white men.... A local Chinese jewelry store owner

disappeared from my state and abandoned all his employee's and customers.
He was missing for a 3 weeks or so and was finally tracked down by the FBI
in China. His company was going under and he was in a lot of debt. Last I
heard, he was persuaded to come back and offered some sort of assistance
to help him get things straightened out. I think he is back in the US now.
And the employee's will be paid and customer's will get their jewelry back.

[The Backlash Cometh]

3. Interesting. Who offered him so much assistance?

[Breeze54]

4. I'm not sure...some sort of re-financing or something.

Maybe the SBA or ? It may have been some local gov.
refinancing/business consultants? I'm not sure. :shrug:
I know they were concerned about people losing jobs
and customers losing possessions.

[The Backlash Cometh]

6. I'm not saying it was a bad idea,

but then, I'm not the one who gets her panties tied in a knot everytime government money is used to pull out the safety net to help out the common joes and janes and juanitas and juans.

[Breeze54]

8. I didn't say it was a bad idea. - Whom are you referring to?

I hope you aren't directing that comment at me because I've said none such thing.

[The Backlash Cometh]

9. Not at all.

I was just being pre-emptive for anyone looking over our shoulders.

[Tab]

5. I read that article separately

I think the dude has some bipolar problem or something.

I wouldn't read too much into it.

[The Backlash Cometh]

7. Here's the funny thing about psychological issues.

Wouldn't they get worse when everything else gets worse? I remember when my HMO doctor and the HMO system let me down and they responded by sending me to shrinks to help me deal with the depression they caused. I wouldn't take the anti-depression pills because common sense told me that it wouldn't resolve the problem. I looked at the shrink and asked, "If a doctor commits malpractice and gives you bad advice that causes you medical complications, and every other doctor your HMO refers you to tries to cover-up for the first doctors mistake by telling you that your problem is psychosomatic, not real, tell me, Mr. Shrink, wouldn't depression be the NORMAL response?"

Answer: Um, yes.

"So, explain to me why I would want to stifle the only honest constant in my life?"

[Tab]

14. Yes, but that's not a requirement

I didn't totally follow your arguement, but I didn't sleep that well last night so I might not be as sharp as I should be.

Regardless...

I was married for far too many years with someone with psychological problems (mainly BPD). I also have a bi-polar cousin, and experience with people with other issues.

Yes, it can get worse when other stuff gets worse - in fact, it usually does, because the person has enough trouble coping with regular life, let alone extra stressors.

That said, if this guy had nothing to fear from the audit (as was proved out) and nothing else, what happened? Answer: It really doesn't matter, what's important is what he PERCEIVED might happen. There may be more to this story that we don't know, but on the face of it, he magnified what he perceived to be a problem. I'd be stressed out about an audit too, although I've always tried to be very good in my reporting. Any inaccuracies found would likely be minor, but you hear all these horror stories and your imagination can just run wild. If you have a psychological disorder, it could be a real problem.

As I know from my ex-wife, when psychological issues are in effect, everything else is off the table and anything goes. And believe me, anything means ANYTHING. When you're married to a BPD (Borderline Personality Disorder), talk about "scortched earth policy" is not too removed from true possilbility.

[The Backlash Cometh]

16. I understand.

There's also another scenario we haven't considered. Maybe something did go wrong in the audit, but they're not going to report it in order to A) give the company a chance to restructure itself and B) try to coax the guy to come in.

[quadriga]

10. He'll end up on the back of a bottle of Château Mouton Rothschild MISSING:

MISSING: Affluent white guy, couldn't hack it, dropped his family and ran off to Tahiti to live on a beach with 19 year old waitress he met at Applebees.

[elizfeelinggreat]

12. Because shame and making amends is an old fashioned idea

and selfishness is the new religion.

Why jump off a building?

[The Backlash Cometh]

15. Precisely.

[WillowTree]

17. Perhaps I missed something.

I didn't see anything in the story to the effect that anyone has to date uncovered anything whatsoever that would indicate that this man had anything to "make amends" for. Must we always assume that anyone who makes a great deal of money is automatically crooked?

[elizfeelinggreat]

18. perhaps a big something

First of all, where did I say that anyone who makes a great deal of money is automatically crooked?

And why do you think this guy, who walked away from his responsibilities, has done nothing wrong? What about those he left hanging?

[WillowTree]

19. Well, it certainly seems...

....that whenever there's a discussion about a wealthy person, eventually it gets around to the presumption that she or he must have done something evil that requires "making amends".

Look, there could be many reasons that this man disappeared. One thing that came to my mind was that he might be one of those unfortunates who proved The Peter Principle by rising to a level where the pressures of his position and personal commitments were more than he could handle. That happened to me once. I took a job that I was fully qualified for based on my background and experience. I couldn't have known until I was actually in the job that my psyche and/or personality just wasn't equipped for the burdens that went with it. In that instance, I could afford to just walk away from the job because I had few encumbrances or financial responsibilities, there were other kinds of career paths I was qualified for where I could make as much money (actually, appreciably more) with much less in the way of investments in time and emotional taxation, and the job market was fairly good.

But, while I'd find it difficult or impossible to condone, I could see where for some people in certain circumstances, they could feel boxed-in, unable to meet the demands of the job and, for whatever reason, unable to deal with the feelings of failure, to the job, the family, the self, and who knows what else and just walk away from it all.

Or he might have been murdered. He may have managed to find somewhere sufficiently secluded to commit suicide that his body has not been found...may never be found. Having someone in my own family who battles BPD every day of her life, unknown to all but those closest to her, I could see how some kind of emotional break could be behind it. There are any number of plausible explanations and the fact is, the story doesn't indicate that there's sufficient evidence to lead to any particular assumption as to what happened to this man at this juncture. I just think that jumping to the conclusion that he necessarily has something that he needs to "make amends" for without way more evidence of same than was presented in this story is, at the very least, premature. And judgmental.

[elizfeelinggreat]

20. I think you've jumped to conclusions

about me. It's not necessary to do so.

The discussion was a general one about white men disappearing and leaving their problems behind them and not just that one person. I read the whole OP and not just the article - and I was responding to a particular post in reply to that OP that was made in jest.

You don't have to nitpick, I have a lot of empathy for people with problems. We ALL have problems. Still there are victims to his actions and yes, they deserve consideration also. Now whether this man has issues that are related to his mental health, his stress levels or some corruption, I do not know. Do you? Do any of those reasons mean his actions have no consequences?

You made me reread what I had written to see why you had such a knee jerk reaction to it but I don't see where I've let mankind down. Also, in general, I stand by my original comment that shame and making amends is an old fashioned idea and selfishness is the new religion for a whole lot of wealthy people of a certain age and position - as referred to in the post I was replying to.

Feel free to disagree with that but please don't insist that I am saying something I'm not saying.

[WillowTree]

22. Well, one thing you're assuming is that this man just walked away.

There doesn't seem to be definitive evidence that that's the case. There's no definitive evidence either way that he's even alive. Still, it's not even a small stretch to presume that the article was cited as an example of someone who "just a drive somewhere, abandon the car, never to be found, probably starting new lives somewhere else."

It seems that more often than not, people in high places who have things to hide, Enron and Qwest execs or, as it seems now, Eliot Spitzer, are suffiently arrogant as to believe that they're ever so much brighter bulbs than everyone else that they bluster their way through until and unless the evidence against them is so overwhelming that denials are no longer possible, and sometimes they don't even fold then. Yet there doesn't seem that anyone's found anything to date that would support any suspiscion that he had anything untoward on his resume that would make him feel he had consequences to face which would make "disappearing" himself a preferrable fate. And make no apparent attempt to take any of his assets with him in the process.

Maybe it's a function of age or maybe I'm just naive, but I've found that giving people the benefit of the doubt until it's actually demonstrated that there's a reason not to is a better way to live for me. I'm happier and like myself better for it. General negativity about our Fellow Man (or Woman), regardless of their circumstances, can be a heavy load on the soul and I'm glad to avoid it whenever possible. YMMV.

[elizfeelinggreat]

25. more power to you and your soul

But you're still concentrating on one man and insisting my post applied exclusively to him instead of the general population of men in his position, which is what I was doing.

Stress related or emotional/mental problems are not given the weight they should be but the people I was criticizing are the very ones that would belittle those problems and prevent those who need help from seeking it or even getting it. I'm sorry you didn't get that.

I'm a happy person, too. I do like to smile at everyone(at least the first time) but it's a big, bad world out there in the top tier and I cannot be blind to it. Take care and I sincerely hope you never suffer for your optimism.

[WillowTree]

30. I never "suffer for [my] optimism."

I may be disappointed, but that's a function of someone else's failings. I find that much easier to live with. But again, YMMV.

[elizfeelinggreat]

31. sure sounds

like you've got it all covered!

Feel free to pass my good wishes on to whoever else might benefit a bit from them.

[The Backlash Cometh]

27. Since when was the Peter Principle an Affirmative Defense?

If it were, then George Bush could leave office without any consequences, and I would like to believe that at least in the history books, he will be vilified.

[WillowTree]

32. I didn't say it was and affirmative defense.

But in life, we often don't know we can't handle something until we try it. I've always known that I wasn't cut-out for sales, but I didn't figure out that supervising/managing others was something I just wasn't made for until I got promoted into it. Only then did I learn that the feeling of responsibility to and for other people's jobs and, in some ways, well-being, was so burensome that it affected everything; my relationships, my overall outlook, even my health. As I said, it was relatively easy to just walk away from the job with no long-term negative effects and I know I'm very fortunate in that respect.

But, as I said in my earlier post, while I don't condone what may have happened in that man's case, I can see where someone in a position involving far more pressure and responsibility that I ever had coupled with family obligations (and we don't know what other cares he had on his plate) might reach the point of breaking someone. I mean, IF he just dropped-out, it isn't as though he would have been setting himself up for an easy go of it. It isn't as if, so far as anyone knows, he absconded with a suitcase full of $1,000 bills and how would he get almost any kind of job without being able to verify his educational records, prior job history or even his Social Security Number without being found?

I haven't faced such a situation and I haven't walked in this guy's shoes and WE DON'T KNOW WHAT REALLY HAPPENED, so I choose not to make judgements. If doing so works better for you, go for it. It harms me not.

[live love laugh]

11. Just this week a man killed another man to fake his own death

In other words, just like in the movies, a man killed another person and tried to assume the dead man's identity.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-car-jack-slipped-murder-web,0,7593433.story

[The Backlash Cometh]

13. Holy crap!

This is bad.

[leftofthedial]

21. evil nasty white man

white man bad! Bad white man! Bad!




What about all the disappearing dark-skinned women? Why aren't you worried about that syndrome? You're not--gasp!--a racist or sexist are you?

[WillowTree]

23. Excellent point.

Thank you for making it.

[elizfeelinggreat]

26. how would we know?

The evil, nasty, bad white men in charge of the media have blocked that info!!!!

;)

[The Backlash Cometh]

28. Honey, if we dark-skinned women could get jobs that paid hundreds of thousands of dollars

each year for about twenty years, the day we walk off the job and leave questions behind at work, you can call me whatever you want. I won't mind. I promise.

[leftofthedial]

35. You mean like Oprah?

oh wait. That'd be hundreds of thousands of dollars a week.

[The Backlash Cometh]

36. LOL!

One woman. Well, I guess you found us out. All this talk of discrimination, we're just really pretending.

[leftofthedial]

38. I know more about discrimination than you think

and I do not discount the discrimination against women of color

[Dan]

24. ...inject a little humor

Thirty plus years ago when I was in the service - another solder told me that white men arrived on this planet via space ships. So, was wondering, possible that disappearing white men have gone home?

Serious side: We are going to be effected by the economic downturn. I've been following the news and maybe we are just starting to see the tip of the iceberg. Ever since Bush was elected - and even when he was enjoying that 70% approval, I have said that Bush is making us a shit-sandwich and before it is over, we are all going to take a bite. Some earlier, some later, but I can assure the sandwich is big enough for all of us to enjoy a bite.

[The Backlash Cometh]

29. There is a serious side.

Very depressed people who have not had it good at all economically, are now opting for suicide. So, when these CEO or CFOs or whatever they want to be called disappear because they can't stand the thought of facing the music, whatever it might be, after living off the hog for so many years, well, I can't really feel sorry for them.

[NashVegas]

33. Steve Fosset, Anyone?

I wonder if he's living somewhere in Paraguay.

[The Backlash Cometh]

34. Is that the balloon guy?

Why would he have wanted to disappear?

[sarcasmo]

37. Wait until these hedge funds collapse and watch how many more missing white Men stories we have.