by Joe Siano
In a recent Gizmodo article, Matt Novak
observes that, “It’s obviously a crime that billionaires even exist in a civilized
society”. His rationale is that “there
simply aren’t enough hours in a day to justify the accumulation of so much
wealth.”
Mr, Novak muses
whether billionaires should even be “allowed to exist”.
There is plenty
to unpack here.
The Scale Has
Changed
Since the
inception of the Federal Reserve in 1913, the passage of legal tender laws and
the abolition of hard currency, the U.S. dollar has lost over
96% of its purchasing power.
Being a millionaire just isn’t what it used to be. If you had one million dollars in 1913, you would
need about $100 million to be just as rich today. A magnate holding a fortune
of $10 million in 1913 would need a billion to be as wealthy in 2021. At
the height of his earning power,
the great Babe Ruth made $80,000 per season. Today the average Major Leaguer earns
over $4 million per year. The Major League
minimum is $570,000 per year – more than 7x what the Babe made.
John D. Rockefeller was
America’s richest man at his death in 1937. He parlayed a $4,000 investment in a
Cleveland oil refinery to amass a fortune of $1.4 billion. Adjusted for inflation, this projects to $340
billion making Bezos, Musk, Gates, Buffet and the like look like second-raters.
The point is do
not get freaked by the word “billionaire”.
What is Wealth?
The word
“wealth” is derived from the old English word, “weal”. An etymology of wealth
reveals that:
‘Wealth’ comes from the old English
‘weal’, which means ‘wealth, welfare, and wellbeing’. Weal is in turn related
to the older word ‘wel’, meaning ‘in a state of good fortune, welfare, or
happiness’.
‘Wel’ gives birth to
‘welth’ around 1250 AD, and ‘welthi’ a century or so later.
What kind of
person resents another person’s well-being?
Why would you wish ill-fortune on another of God’s creatures just
because, at this moment in time, they may be a bit better off than you?
This is just
plain old “envy”, one of the seven deadly sins.
Or perhaps “greed” or covetousness. It is nothing short of malicious to
wish ill-will on a person simply because their achievements outstripped yours.
As previously
noted in the Gizmodo story, the author ponders whether billionaires should be allowed
to exist. The implication is that he
believes not.
Then the
question becomes how would he dispose of these supposed parasites? Would he chop off their heads as the Jacobins
did with the aristocrats? Or ship them off to gulags as Stalin did with
the bourgeoisie and reactionaries? Or to
concentration camps as the Nazi’s did with the Jews? Or to “re-education” camps as the Maoists do
with their dissidents?
Maybe he has
something new in mind. Freedom’s
opponents are always inventive when it comes to genocide, torture and
oppression.
Wealth, Utility
and Well-Being
A more
technical economic word for well-being might be utility.
Austrian
economics is rooted in the a priori observation that human beings take purposeful action to move from a
state of discomfort to a state of less discomfort. Acting human beings seek utility, an
improvement in their well-being.
A corollary
statement to that is that human beings prefer a state of rest to a state of
activity. However to feed, clothe and
shelter themselves, people will engage
in activity necessary to procure these ends,
In the
primitive state – a state of scarcity – the hunter/gatherer economy, people
need to forage all day long to survive. Even
in traditional agrarian economies, life for most folks was unending toil to
make ends meet. The old saying goes, “A
man may work from sun to sun, but a woman’s work is never done”.
The Democrat
Party imagines that it created the 40-hour work week. The reality is this. The
growth of worker productivity grew exponentially due to mechanization, capital
accumulation, technical innovation and competitive pressure starting with the
Industrial Revolution. It has only
accelerated as digital tools enabled industry to discover and apply new
consumer and production technologies at lightning speed.
Due to advances
in labor productivity, workers can satisfy their needs for food, clothing,
shelter and even some luxuries in much less time. Thus Austrian economics also posits that
leisure time is a luxury good which a great many workers wish to purchase at
the cost of working for 40 hours or less and making less money. To this point, the modern world now boasts a
vast leisure industry to fill the empty hours of workers including TV and
movies, video games, resorts, casinos, pro sports, concerts, theater, amusement
parks, bars and restaurants not to mention adult entertainment.
Creative
geniuses, entrepreneurs, inventors and visionaries stand apart from the 9-5
crowd. A handful of highly driven people
such as Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates and many
more have created products, services and processes that untold millions of
people believe have made their lives better and easier. By delivering utility, by enhancing the
well-being of millions of everyday people – by adding to their weal – the
world’s best innovators have, in the process, amassed fortunes for
themselves. Is that a crime? Mr Novak believes so,
Mr. Novak totally
misfires when he asserts that, “there simply aren’t enough hours in a day to
justify the accumulation of so much wealth.”
Consider this. If an entrepreneur
provided just $10 of utility to 100 million people (less than one-third the
U.S. population), presto, he or she is a billionaire. About 1.5 billion people use iPhones, another
1.5 billion Android devices and another 1.5 billion Windows computers. That’s a lot of people who feel their lives
are made better by just these three products.
Shouldn’t the
developers and stakeholders be paid? Are
they stealing? If Mr. Novak were such a
compelling writer that everyone in America paid $10 to receive his missives, he
would be a billionaire three times over.
Do you think he would refuse payment or give it away?
If I were a
Rich Man
If I were rich, I'd have the time that I lack
To sit in the synagogue and pray.
And maybe have a seat by the Eastern wall.
And I'd discuss the holy books with the learned
men, several hours every day.
That would be the sweetest thing of all.
-From Fiddler on the Roof
Tevye the milkman pines to be rich so that he can make life better for his family but most of all so that he can attend to higher, spiritual matters.
Maslow's hierarchy of needs holds that once
humans have secured their material needs their focus moves to the transcendent. To truth, beauty, poetry, philosophy and God.
By making us
better off, our billionaire brothers and sisters liberate us to be truly human
and to contemplate the deeper mysteries of life and its meaning.
Great art,
philosophy and theology are produced in affluent societies with the backing of
wealthy patrons. It is consumed by people
with cultivated minds and tastes. In his treatise, Wealth, Andrew Carnegie,
mused that the highest calling of those blessed with riches was through public
endowments in the arts, sciences and other civilizing institutions. Private philanthropy makes a nation great,
not government programs.
For all of
their faults, the billionaire class has done more to make like better than any
government ever could. In fact, I would
argue that the government only makes life worse.
So, I have no
problem with the very rich legally avoiding Income Tax. We understand that the wealthy have the best
security to protect their homes, persons and businesses from assault theft and
pillaging. It stands to reason that they
would also command the finest resources to protect themselves from the
marauding taxman,
Our world is
better off when they invest, spend and give away their resources as they see
best. After all, they are smarter and more productive than any Beltway bureaucrat
or legislator.
Related Articles:
The
Politician and the Producer
Go back to: 2 Percenter Home Article Archive
Connect through:
Facebook Twitter E-mail
"Half
the people are stoned and the other half are waiting for the next election.
Half the people are drowned and the other half are swimming in the wrong
direction."
- Paul Simon
No comments:
Post a Comment