I hope you are! I’m not, and neither is my son David. If I were rich, I’d stop working I suppose, but do I hate or despise those who are rich? Of course not! I am not nearly as rich as most of my clients, I am sure. I do get awfully tired of those who think those who are rich are evil, or got their wealth by underhanded means or cheating. I am certain this is not usually the case. Look at all the rich people in history, and admire them. The Carnegies, Rockefellers, and even modern day rich people, such as Steve Jobs, or Bill Gates, got their wealth by being smart and doing the right thing at the right time. Why do some dislike rich people? Because they think they shouldn’t be rich? Or do they think that rich people harm poor people?
When I see a man with an expensive suit, car, mansion, yacht, or airplane, I am not jealous, because I always think of the jobs that rich man provided. Who built that mansion? How many does he hire to clean, decorate, and maintain that mansion? How many people have jobs making yachts, Mercedes Benz autos, swimming pools, and biz jets? Jobs created by wealth, are productive jobs, as opposed to those jobs in government, which harass, slow down, or prevent entirely, many creative, productive jobs from existing. How many crops have been thwarted by various bureaucracies? How many productive jobs have been lost by taxes, bureaucracy and degenerating currency?
Why have all the productive jobs gone overseas, and why can’t we make what we buy and consume any longer? In China, they aren’t throttled by various bureaucracies, high taxes, EPA’s, OSHA’s, MSHA’s, and a thousand government entities, constantly getting in the way of productive manufacturing employment. China is a communist nation, but one would never know it. I am sure the commies just sit back and watch relatively free people go about getting rich, with unbridled smiles on their collective faces.. I am going to write column on how China got where it is in the future, and it is not what you think.
Andrew Carnegie donated over 6,000 pipe organs to churches, and built hundreds of libraries, most of which are still in existence. He built Carnegie Hall in New York, among other charities, and when he died, he left hundreds of millions to a foundation, which unfortunately gives money to the wrong entities usually, as does the Ford Foundation. Rich people built marvelous movie palaces, skyscrapers, streetcar lines, power plants, luxury steamships, and public parks. Face it, one can only sleep in one bed at a time, wear one suit of clothes at a time, and eat one meal at a time. Rich people want to be served their fine meals, drive or be driven in fine automobiles, have the best seats at concerts and sports games, and want people to notice them. So what? Every single thing a rich person does, wants, or gets, provides jobs. Being a butler, chauffeur, or private pilot, pays very well I am sure, and those custom tailors who make wonderful clothes, are well provided for, I am sure. Rich people, know where their wealth came from, and how they got it. Unfortunately, the descendents of rich people are often spoilt and worthless. They will many times squander their parent’s or grandparent’s hard earned wealth, and end up being useless to themselves and society. Or do we think that the almost gone Kennedy fortune was used wisely? Did any of Henry Ford’s kids ever amount to much?
Even if they throw it away and squander their inherited fortunes, they still create jobs for thousands of people, every time they spend a million or so. Everyone can’t be smart, and everyone can’t be rich, but everyone should earn what they have by effort put forth, or at least I think they should. The second and third generation idle rich may create jobs, but often are a first rate pain. Modern day movie stars, many times seem to come into that category. The Jimmy Stewarts, John Waynes, Edward G. Robinsons, and those going all the way back to the silent film days, seem in retrospect, to have spent on themselves lavishly, but rarely were in trouble with the law, as seems to be common now.
J.P. Morgan saved the US economy with his wealth at one time, and Henry Ford was dead set against going to war. The privately built skyscrapers, estates, department stores, railways, airlines, and ship companies, all came into existence from private capital, many times from the sale of stocks to raise the needed money. Those stocks paid dividends to those who invested in them, and it makes me laugh to hear Hillary say that, “The big oil companies should pay the gas tax from their profits.” Those profits are distributed to the shareholders in the form of dividends, so it is the shareholders who would pay the gas tax, not those ’rich oil companies.’ If Exxon made a hundred million, where do you think it went? It went for exploration, development, and dividends partly. It didn’t all wind up in someone’s pocket. Hillary’s economics I grade, is “F.”
I’m sitting at my desk Sunday night writing this drivel, and everywhere I look I see lights, computers, telephones, a desk, clock, radio, tile, glass, books, and a hundred things, and they were all made from raw materials, which were mined or grown originally, which provided jobs. These things were manufactured, which provided jobs. They were transported, distributed, wholesaled and retailed, which provided jobs. If they break, it provides jobs, and cleaning and maintaining homes and offices provide jobs, all of which are productive jobs. Jobs which create wealth. The jobs which destroy wealth, are government jobs, which regulate, thwart, interfere with, and annoy production of everything, and the costs of those government jobs are taken out in currency devaluation, high taxes, and lost production.
It’s difficult to get rich today, because of taxes, regulations, and government. Those who have gotten rich in the past, and I mean extremely rich, did it before government became the expensive, total annoyance, and hindrance it has become today. Thanks to government’s decaying the currency by endless printing of it, and giving it to useless people through welfare, living has become dangerous in 2008. Crime is rampant, and protecting ones self against it is expensive, requiring alarm systems on homes and cars, guns, constant vigilance, and it even has become dangerous doing normal things, such as shopping or travel. Not only are the jobs gone, but the value of the money is gone also, and we are faced with a constant barrage of government lies about how wonderful everything is; while credit cards, auto loans and mortgages are failing or going into arrears by the millions. Whole chains of businesses are closing, and parts of others are doing the same because of a lack of business, thereby creating even more unemployment and bankruptcies. Alcohol consumption in restaurants is down 33%, because people can’t afford those cocktails, while McDonald’s business is up. There are two used cars dealers of my immediate acquaintance, in two different towns, and both of them have had a series of terrible months. People are broke, in debt up to their ears, and in many cases are frantically trying to just keep afloat by any means they can discover. This is only the beginning, I am afraid. I salute those who are rich, because they provide jobs, be it lawn maintenance, mansion building, luxury travel, or whatever rich people like to do, because they provide jobs. Many are predicting a horrible chain of events which will propel us into a depression worse than the 1930’s, and I hope they are wrong. If it happens, it won’t be the fault of the rich people. It can all be directly traced back to the D.C. Gang.