The Rich Are Different
Posted on October 27, 2011
The rich are different than you and me.And it isn’t only that they have more money.
The rich have come under attack recently, so I decided to take a look at who is really, really rich.
And what I found was a group of people who have changed our world profoundly.
Think of the Walton family, responsible for Walmart.
The Mars family, responsible for all of that Halloween candy.
Bill Gates and the dearly departed Steve Jobs, who revolutionized how we work, how we interact, how we live.
Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook, and the Google guys are at the top too.
There is Warren Buffett, a role-model for all the savvy investors.
And at both ends of the political spectrum, you have controversial figures like George Soros and the Koch brothers who made their money because they worked hard and were smarter than their competitors.
These folks have collectively revolutionized modern society. They had vision, creativity, persistence, and an innate toughness to get where they got.
So why should we begrudge them their wealth? Why should we talk them down and try to take their hard-earned money away from them?
In 1930, somebody asked Babe Ruth why he deserved to make more money than the President. He replied: “I had a better year.”
Well, these very rich folks deserve their wealth because they had a better year.
I am all for tax fairness, and I am all for tax reform. We all should pitch in to save America from our debt crisis.
But we all ought to be careful in vilifying the rich. Instead, we should try to emulate them.