There will be investigations and already there are lawsuits over the rollout of Facebook’s overhyped IPO last week. But no investigation is necessary into the reason for the outrage over the stock’s rapid fall. It’s called human nature. It is the same characteristic that causes people to believe, against staggering odds, that they can win the lottery, or score big in Atlantic City, or discover a fool-proof “system” for playing the stock market. It is the familiar get-rich-quick notion that somehow one can bypass hard work, sound financial planning and win The Big One, retiring to a life of ease.

The old maxim “There’s a sucker born every minute” can be amended in the Internet age. Today, there’s a sucker born every second. No matter the teaching of moralists, history and experience, there are still those who believe they have discovered something new, or that they alone have a gift for making money.