Hi. I am a millionaire.
The vast majority of you...are not.
Yes, there are a few millionaires that hang out around here, and at least one billionaire. But I'm not here to drop names. And I'm not trying to brag about my wealth, or to disparage anyone's lack of it - I'm just setting out the facts, before we begin. I'm not famous or even well known outside of certain circles, so I don't have any particular axe to grind.
I just decided it was finally time for us to have a little chat.
Don't worry - I won't get kicked out of the millionaire's club for this. And yes - there really is a millionaire's club.
Well - it's not quite a club - or at least not a club like you probably think of a club. It is more a frame of mind, an attitude - a circumstance, if you will. We know a lot of the same people. We receive a lot of the same information. And we react to particular stimulus in a very telling way, a way that those of you who do not harbor great wealth, can possibly understand. Again, it has to do with circumstance.
I read a lot about "class war." Let me set you straight on this: There is NO class war - at least not on "our" side.
Why would we go to war with the people who work to make our lives livable? Just because we're rich does not mean we live in a bubble - well, not all of us. We do understand, you know, that people make our boats, and cars, and build our houses (I have seven), and clean our offices, and fly our planes. We would not have much of a life, without all of the people who do things for us. We get it.
But what people without wealth do not understand - perhaps without wealth you cannot understand - is how much work we put in to maintaining our wealth. We hire a lot of people to make sure we can keep our wealth, and it is a constant battle - between fighting the media, and public opinion, we must be forever fighting the government, who want to tax us half to death, to regulate our businesses to the point where squeezing out a lousy 10% profit becomes a real chore, and people/groups (environmentalists, unions, etc.) who are always looking for ways to keep us from just building things, or investing our money how we want to, or finding some way - any way - to blame us for their problems. It becomes quite tiresome.
So I hire lawyers and experts (and yes, they hire lobbyists), who watch over my interests, who make sure Congress and locals don't overdo the whole "protecting the masses" thing. And again - I get the need for such protection - there are always unscrupulous people in every strata of society. Sometimes, I agree with such laws and regulations - but sometimes, they just get in the way of good business.
I wasn't really wealthy when I was born. I started with a bit less than a million dollars, and built my way up to - well, a lot more than a million. Yes, I attended the best schools, yes, I had "every opportunity" - but I had to work to get where I am, and instead of thinking of wealthy people as lazy and unproductive, you should consider how much work we put into growing our wealth. You'd be amazed at how quickly one can actually spend a million dollars these days...
And I cannot apologize if your wages have not kept up with inflation. Stockholders are always looking for a bigger return, year after year. I didn't create this system, you know, and neither did any of my contemporaries. We were placed into the middle of it, with certain expectations, and we do our best to meet those expectations.
In many ways, you are both real and abstract to me. I understand that you are all human like me - hopes, dreams, problems, good times. But I am unable to think of you as people when I cut 2,500 jobs in New Jersey and move them to China - stockholders, remember? I can't afford to worry about your problems.
Which brings me to health insurance reform. Even though I own a lot of insurance company stock (I checked, I do), I hope this reform passes. I don't know a lot about the details, but I think some of it will be good for people - and I do need people - healthy people, preferably. I also think it will be good for insurance companies - they get reigned in some, and pick up new customers in the process. Sounds like win-win to me.
I have to be honest, though. I don't think passing such reform will hurt me, personally, so I don't really pay much attention to it. In fact, I don't really care about health insurance reform at all, as I have the best doctors I can hire, and I don't worry about how much my insurance costs, or if I even have it (I actually need to check, I don't know). There is not a catastrophic medical scenario that could possibly break me financially, and I'm young (in my 50's), in good shape, I eat well, and exercise - so I don't really spend a lot of time worrying about such things. And anyway, I have people who do that for me. And all of this is true for everyone I know and care about. But let me just state this: If insurance reform passes, even though it does not affect me personally either way, I sincerely hope it is good for you all.
I don't know if this has been at all enlightening - I hope it has been for you. I hope you understand that I'm not at "war" with you - no one I know is at "war" with you. We don't think of things that way, and I hope you will no longer think of things in this way, either.