When You Go to Sup With the Devil, Bring a Long Spoon

That old proverb came to mind when I read that Facebook is getting a cash infusion from the Global Vampire Squid.

Facebook, the popular social networking site, has raised $500 million from Goldman Sachs and a Russian investor in a deal that values the company at $50 billion, according to people involved in the transaction.

I was on Facebook for a couple of months and then left it.

What gets me is the charge towards Boomers of being "self-absorbed". Looking at people on Facebook showed me that Boomers have nothing on Gen Xers and the Millenials* when it comes to being self-absorbed. I saw such urgent updates as "boy, did I get hammered last night", "I'm at the airport on the way to D.C.", "I'm going into work", "having dinner tonight" and then there were all the frakking updates from people playing Farmville or Mafia Wars.

Really, who gives a rat's ass? Sharing is highly overrated.

But beyond that, taking money from Goldman Sachs and Russians, what could possibly go wrong with that? Zuckerberg is going to be lucky if all that happens is that those goniffs strip him of his company. He could wind up rooming next to Mikhail Khordokovsky.

UPDATE: Matt Taibbi notes that this is just another in a long string of Goldman's deals which are of questionable legality and of dubious morality. I imagine that Goldman's going to layer on all sorts of management and service fees that will sap any profits from Goldman's victims clients. But as he noted, since only the rich are probably going to be investing in this scheme, it will be hard to work up any sympathy for them when they start complaining of how they were robbed.

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*Also known as "Generation Y" (born 1982-2002). That comes from Gen X (1965-1981). I don't like the Gen Y term, for that implies that those born after 2002 are Generation Z, which would imply that they either the ones who are going to fight World War Z or they're going to turn into zombies.