Every
year, for the past three decades, Forbes comes out with its list of richest
people in the world. To me the list
should be in the post office highlighting America’s Most Wanted, as I believe
most of the people on the list committed crimes or ethical violations in order
to get and stay there.
It’s
not a crime to be rich, and it’s true some get there out of brains, gumption
and luck, but you don’t get to be mega-rich without getting down and dirty.
There’s
a disdain for the uber rich, not just a jealousy. We know that the rich get rich, in part,
because they either overcharge customers, underpay employees, bribe people,
violate laws, fudge taxes, or take advantage of their position.
Some
seem likeable and innocent, like the richest man in the world, Bill Gates, who
despite all of his charitable giving leads the world with $75 billion. Michael Bloomberg, with $40 billion,
Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg at $44.6 billion, and Warren Buffett at $60.8
billion. All seem like good people. But who knows what they do behind closed
doors.
I
have zero evidence to support my belief that the wealthy are crooks and/or
unethically greedy, but I stand by it.
So many people work hard, are smart, and act honestly and don’t
accumulate even 1% of 1% of the wealth any of these 1,810 global billionaires have.
The
list doesn’t seem to have a lot of people associated with book publishing and
books, unless you count Jeff Bezos, who runs Amazon. Here’s a case in point. Some in the book industry believe that Amazon
doesn’t operate fairly. To top it off,
Amazon benefits from Wall Street support like no other stock in history –
despite the fact the company barely makes a profit in comparison to what it
takes in.
Donald
Trump is a good example of my claim about the rich. I realize he was born rich
but he did turn his inheritance into a net worth of $4.3 billion, according to
the list. Some of that came as a result
of filing four business bankruptcies, admittedly paying off politicians, and
from the looks of things, bullying those that he deals with. He’s been accused of fraud by New York State
and has been the subject of numerous lawsuits and has paid a variety of
penalties for violating the law. Should
we praise him for being rich at the expense of the law or morality?
Others
are on the rich list like the Andresetti sisters, each worth 1.2 billion
dollars at ages 19 and 20, simply because they inherited daddy’s wealth. I don’t fault those who inherit money except
that the money was likely earned through violations of laws and ethics, to a
certain degree. I’m also sure every tax
law was twisted to ensure money transferred down with few if any taxes paid.
There
is a pattern to these wealth lists. They
include people in energy, pharmaceuticals, sports, financial services and
industries that are powerful. You don’t
see too many billionaire authors, publishers, or truly creative artists. It’s due to the scale of our economy. No one can sell more books at a high enough
margin point to compete with a company that sells oil, drugs or hedge funds.
The
rich run the world in a variety of ways:
·
Wealth
influences the media, politicians and the police
·
They
determine what gets sold and produced
·
They
dictate wage scales and best practices
Think
about how hard it is for people to become millionaires. Then think of how few are
worth ten million dollars or more. Now,
multiply that by 100 and you get a billion dollars. And some people are worth tens of
billions. I do think we need limits on
how much any one person can own. Why?
First,
a handful of people should not get to run the world. I treasure democracy and
fairness.
Second,
society, benefits, through taxes or charities, so if some people accumulate so
much wealth they need to give back to society.
Third,
under a cap system, people can still be crazy rich. Example:
If we said once you get to be worth say $50 million dollars, the rest has
to be taxed at 90% or given away to charity, what would be so wrong? Couldn’t this person live off of 50
million? Would they have a cramped
lifestyle when most people don’t earn $50 thousand annually?
Create
an economic system that allows for mobility and growth that allows for someone
to taste life’s best offerings, and that rewards people for their industriousness,
but let’s not give a blank check to the wealthiest because in the end more goes
wrong when wealth is concentrated in the hands of a few.
I
much prefer a Bernie Sanders world, where the poorest are not left out in the
cold, where the richest still have a lot of toys but don’t own everything. Our nation is better when people have
something to aspire to. For now, too
many are stuck in a hole and don’t seem to be going anywhere but sideways.
2016 Book Marketing & Book Publicity Toolkit
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