Expect the drums of American Socialism to beat loudly for another couple of days. A British report finds that the three richest men in the US–Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos and Warren Buffett–have as much wealth as the lower one-half of the American population. Those three alone are worth about 250-billion dollars–the same as the poorest 160-million in the US.
The authors of the study try to claim that this concentration of wealth is due to suppression of wages for workers and tax evasion through the use of shelters and off-shore investment. But what they choose to ignore–especially in the case of the two richest guys–is that these men have provided us with stuff that we really want–and we willingly hand over our hard-earned wages to them.
If you think Microsoft founder Bill Gates makes too much money, do all of your reports at work by hand on paper. Figure out spreadsheets with a calculator. Go to the library and use the card catalog to find out information on politics, celebrities and science in books that were outdated by the time they went to print.
If you think Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has too much wealth, buy only what the local mom and pop stores carry in your hometown. And if you need something else, drive from town to town and from store to store to see if they carry it. Mail a request to stores across the country to have them send you catalogs from which you can place orders and wait weeks for delivery through the US Postal Service. And if you have a unique product to sell, travel around to the headquarters of major retailers and convince them to carry it on their shelves–or just peddle it at flea markets and rummage sales.
My favorite of the three richest is Warren Buffet. This is a guy that never had an original thought of his own for a business–or that ever tried to sell anything himself. He simply recognized all of the stuff that the rest of us would want to buy and invested in those companies early. If you want to reduce Buffett total’s wealth I would suggest that you not buy any cutting-edge electronics, dine out at popular chain restaurants or try to use the international banking system in any way shape or form.
The mega-rich here in the US didn’t “take” their wealth from us. They created something of value that the vast majority of Americans–and people worldwide wanted–and we willingly handed over our money because we wanted to. Nobody held a gun to our heads. The Government didn’t tax us and give it just those guys. In fact, Gates, Bezos and Buffett undoubtedly paid the highest income tax bills of any three Americans last year–which ostensibly is supposed to go “back to us”.
Ask yourself why you don’t surf the internet on a Danish-invented internet explorer or why you don’t buy diapers on a Swedish-developed shopping site or why you don’t drive a Norwegian-built car. It might re-kindle your appreciation for Capitalism again.
