Yes, people can get super-rich in a capitalist economy. Good for them. But it’s like Bernie Sanders says—it’s the power and influence and blindness that get concentrated in the hands of this microscopic minority, while a much higher percentage of Americans have to prioritize and decide between medicine or food.
I don’t begrudge anyone the opportunity to make it big, to be educated in the ways of commerce and business, to realize a vision. To be ambitious and talented and clever, or to just stumble onto something that turns into a pot of gold.
It’s more what happens after a business takes off into the stratosphere. There are interests at play, stakes and stakeholders, a desire to maintain a certain lifestyle and control. Even a desire to maximize market share and make more money than any one person would need in a thousand lifetimes.
And the opinions of some mega-rich probably matter more than they should, in part because forceful egos go into hyperdrive.
Words like “skewed,” and “corrupted” and “selfish” and “self-important” and “eccentric” start getting batted about. The rich get rich in part by not paying taxes, or paying significantly less than their fair share, hiding behind the perhaps unspoken assumption that their mere presence in any given community is like a gift from God and how dare they be taxed, and hindered from maximizing profits that get directed to off-shore tax shelters or into elaborate, ostentatious End Times bunkers that sound more like giant Playlands with flammable moats.
Apparently, this is what several mega-rich are doing with the billions they’ve gained under the pretense of producing desirable things. By fleecing America, gaming the system, and forgetting about everyone else. Giving back is a token gesture, and sharing the wealth is a four-letter concept, anathema to the average free-enterprise capitalist.
3 Cents' 