When will Americans stop deifying the uber-rich? It’s long passed time to redefine compulsive hoarding disorder to include excessive amounts of money. Pop culture has created a television show where gawkers can watch those “who suffer” from hoarding get treatment. In other words, the general population sees it as a mental illness, unless you’re richer than Croesus.
While people actually use average Jane and Joe’s mental illness as entertainment, at the same time, they worship at the alter of those that have benefited from a regressive tax system; and sit on piles of money like antiquated fat dragons. The hoarders of manufactured stuff get pity, scorn or laughter, where the Bezos, Musks, and Gates of the world get admiration. Why the disconnect?
The obvious response is that they “create,” be it inventions, jobs or private sector structure. And if you believe that they should be rewarded with more money than they could ever spend in one hundred lifetimes by winning unregulated capitalism, then I suppose this conversation will be short.
However, if you’re someone that recognizes that they did not achieve their position alone, and that they benefited from common infrastructure, tax law, cheap labor and basic luck, then you can leave our ingrained culture of rich-people deference and start to advocate for change.
The Revolutions of the 18th Century — brought to you by the Age of Reason — initiated the erosion of the western world’s monarchies. Our ancestors could rejoice that the political system changed to reward merit and not a divine right by birth. Of course, slavery, indentured servitude and low or no civil rights for women tarnish that celebratory image. The world would remain a pretty brutal class-based system. It was assumed, however that (if you were a white male at least) you had a chance to gain wealth and peer-esteem through hard work and good ideas. Progress!
But over time, as more people gained rights in America, that notion became ingrained as another version of divine right. Instead of God bequeathing you your privileged place in the world’s power structure, money itself became the symbol of character.
I still wonder at this notion. How can hoarding the lifeblood of our current societal structure lead to pop culture deference? I understand how it can gain power: behold, the all mighty employment opportunities. I am not anti-entrepreneur and boss-based capitalism (regulated). And in politics, all you have to do is start doling out dollars for those whose obsequience has a price. Soon you’ll have lots of “friends” to do your bidding. But the general population that will never be invited into the same room as these modern-day aristocrats have to snap out of it. This rich-people-fascination is in itself its own illness.
This week’s news that Bezos might be poised to be the first trillionaire was positioned by the news that Amazon will eliminate the “hazard pay” of essential workers. This came on the heals of an Amazon VP that protested by quitting over warehouse conditions; and Bezos’ anti-labor stance.
Please don’t show me a list of their philanthropy. (And their ego-driven space race: imagine what NASA could do with more resources?) If we had a fair tax system - including eliminating billionaires — this nation could do so much more with our vast wealth. (Of course, we could do even more if we stopped rewarding war profiteers, but that is another blog.)
The pandemic has just highlighted our gigantic wealth gap and the unfairness of it all. Yet, while tens of thousands of people have died in the U.S. alone, all of a sudden we’re debating if a trillionaire should exist while at the same forcing the proletariat to struggle under duress.
Well, I have a dream that one day I may live in a country where we will judge people by the content of their character, and not the contents of their bank accounts. And in this imaginary country, someone like Bezos that hoards all that money while his greed causes stress and ruins lives would get very little respect.
I believe that a future like that could exist some day. It’s a possible future at least. And I think that children in future classrooms may marvel in disbelief at an age where civilization rewarded greed with respect. Further more, those that exploit people and trash the environment for personal gain will be scorned in the history books. How do we think of the Southern plantation owners today, for example. Or do the history books praise Louis XIV as someone with good character for building Versailles while his people starved?
One thing is certain, things aren’t going to remain the way they are currently or prior to the pandemic. Change is inevitable. The Divine Right of Kings was replaced; and our current system of unregulated capitalism will be replaced eventually too. The question is: will it be violent or relatively peaceful as citizens still have some power at the voting booth?
I am holding on to hope that we are entering an era that may be painful in the beginning but will lead to a fairer and more egalitarian society. One where the powerful actually compete to create a legacy of happiness and liberty for as many people as possible. Or even better — one where just law makes active participation in our governing system feasible for most; and laborers share more in the surplus of their own productivity.
One thing should be clear though now: if you don’t pay a living wage for forty hours of work a week, benign rule is not something you can brag about. “Job creators” don’t get to create any crappy job and claim success.
History will judge you Jeff Bezos (and Elon Musk and all the rest of you greedy mere mortals) poorly. Should humans survive to the next age, in spite of all the waste and hardship you help perpetrate, you could be seen as, like monarchs, relics of a dishonest age. You may be dead, but your memory may live on in a way you wouldn’t relish if you could see it imprinted right now in those future history books.
As for the rest of us, we have a common legacy that will connect our current moment in time as well. Do we fade into the history books as America’s democracy fades into future volumes of “The Fall of the American Empire?” Or do we go down like another “greatest generation” as moving America into our salvation: a more equal, sustainable and just society?
“The greatness of a man is not in how much wealth he acquires but in his integrity and his ability to affect those around him positively.” — Bob Marley
“We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings.” — Ursula K. Le Guin