Confessions of an Unreconstructed Capitalist

I am, by birth and training, an unreconstructed Capitalist.  People who make money—even obscenely large amounts of money—deserve to keep it.  Why?  Because it is THERE’S!  They earned it.  If you make your money legally I have nothing but admiration for you.  Those Americans who, through talent, training, initiative, hard-work, or even dumb luck, have been able to get rich deserve credit, not scorn.  

I am not a 1%-er.  My childhood was not one of privilege.  If you can remember a time when your wardrobe included exactly three dresses, one for church, one for school and one to trade off with your younger sister for variety, you were growing up, “poor.”  The first bedroom I remember clearly was in the unheated upper story of a Minnesota house.  I shared a bed with two sisters; we had an orange crate turned on end with a piece of muslin hung across the front to hold our folded clothes, and a broom handle, suspended by wire behind the door, for a closet. 

Now, I tend to agree with Tevya in Fiddler on the Roof, “…I realize it is no shame to be poor; but it’s no great honor either.”  Yet, you do need to know this much about me to understand my reaction to an article I read recently in the Washington Post, “The Deal with Rich People” by Carlos Lozada.  He points out that from the very beginning, Americans have revered equality, but sought wealth.  He then goes on to discuss the contradiction in these two ideas.

His love/hate relationship with the wealthy is the kind of conundrum that exists only for liberals.  If you are a conservative there is simply no problem.  The equality he talks about is equality under the law, not in the bank.  If basic economic understanding is beyond Lozada, he should read the children’s book, “The Little Red Hen.”  If explains a lot.    

I recognize that none of us were raised in a vacuum.  Our civilization has created many devices to enhance the productiveness of our lives.  We have roads, sewers, schools, police and fire workers.  We have laws that protect our lives and property.  We have parents, friends and family who operate in our best interest.  God bless them all.  But there is still free will.  Each of us can choose to make as much or as little of our opportunities as we wish.  Some of us have more native talent.  Some of us have more personal drive, or tolerance for risk, or imagination.  Some of us are less prone to vice, sloth, or the other deadly sins.  But these differences are the mesh through which the free market sifts out success and failure.  We should then be rewarded accordingly!  This is what creates inventions, jobs and progress for society. 

The government, by contrast, creates nothing.  It facilitates individuals in creating everything.  Our government is not the master, it is the servant. 

The rich spend enormous amounts of money on charitable causes of their choosing.  I don’t care why they do it, but I am grateful for their largesse.   If you earn your money it is yours, to spend, to save, to share, to bequeath or to waste.  People who constantly preach against the rich, and wish to take more and more from them in the form of taxes, sound like jejune, envious malcontents. 

My suggestion is that no one should propose a tax that they, themselves, would not have to pay.  While you are at it, use the super wealthy’s charitable giving (as a percent of income) as your guide as well.  

Admire successful people, and keep the faith.