Too good to be true

I've been very interested in how people have reacted to Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme. There was a newscast on the radio yesterday that noted that people applauded when he was found guilty of all of his swindling and scheming.
Now, I admit, it's rough when you lose your entire life savings, and in the case of charitable foundations, losing all of your capital. For those who were living off of their investment returns, now to find they have nothing, and having to return to work well past their prime, it is a very scary and bleak time.
However, on the radio, some of his "victims" were stating that he didn't "deserve" to be put into a white-collar prison, that what he did deserved to be put in with the murderers and the rapists and the pedophiles. Excuse me?
I think this demonstrates two very disturbing tendencies in our society. 1. Listening to people's commentaries about how Mr. Madoff should burn in hell, etc etc, shows me that people care very very much about money. We seem to care more about money than we do about people. I think this is demonstrated in the equivalency that some people have made that the loss of their money is equally as bad as sexually assaulting a small child. 2. That when we are gullible fools, we will immediately turn around and blame as many other people as possible. Come on now, how many times have we heard if an opportunity to make money sounds too good to be true, it likely is? Apparently people who invested with Madoff had consistent returns, year after year, irrespective of how the rest of the economy was going, irrespective of how banks were posting their prime rates, irrespective of how markets were going. Somehow that didn't trigger with anybody that it wouldn't make sense to make the exact same return every year, despite market fluctuations. So, if you're dumb enough to fall for that, frankly, the adage that 'a fool and his money are soon parted' fits the part well...