Gluttony & Guile

Bob Iger is the current CEO of Disney, a once culturally important company. Iger has an estimated net worth in excess of 600 Million dollars (690 million as of 2019). Iger and his predecessors long ago abandoned the values that Walt Disney at least publicly embraced after founding and building the company (though Ole Coke-snortin’ Walt was far from an angel). SAG-AFTRA is a labor union with over 150,000 members. On Bastille Day, 2023, the members of the union went out on strike and began walking picket lines despite high temperatures in most major cities in the US. Iger’s, “let them eat cake” moment came as a near immediate response to the strike.

I’ve been thinking about the vast chasm between the overwhelming majority of SAG-AFTRA members earning “scale” wages and the senior executives of every major media company. Under the recently expired contract between the union and the media companies, the weekly “scale” rate ranged from $1,251 to $3,575. Iger’s annual base salary is nearly 30 million dollars and his weekly rate is nearly 600 thousand dollars. No doubt he EARNS almost NONE of it.

Billionaires and their ilk NEVER earn their net worth, instead they do what every “bootstrapping” successful person does - they STEAL it. This isn’t much of a stretch either. The actors, writers and others who literally create the media sold by Disney receive an all but literal pittance yet it is THEIR labor, and theirs alone, that creates so much value for the company. Indeed, their Senior executives are able to pay themselves literal millions DESPITE providing little to nothing of value to the media making process. In the end, the recalcitrance of the monied executives will have to be surrendered because, like any member of homo sapiens, the people who actually do the work must be able to live if the company is going to survive. This is the dark, ugly secret of Capitalism.

With the foregoing in mind I was given to wonder about the source(s) of gluttony, the most universal and distinguishing characteristic of the wealthy in America and around the globe. While watching my dogs push each other away when I was handing out snacks I realized that dogs are gluttonous. After I doled out the dog snacks I fed my G-kids’ goldfish and watched as they fought over whatever those flakes are made of - again, gluttony. This, in turn, made me think about the existence of gluttony in likely every living species that is or was forced to “compete” for food and water. Clearly, in my opinion at least, Gluttony is about a sense of security. A belief, however erroneous, that if I want to ensure my physical survival then I must be able to provide for myself not only in the near term but for as long as I will live.

Consider my dogs. I have always free fed my pets, both dogs and cats. I don’t ensure their bowls are always full however if they are emptied out I refill them. My dogs recently had a visitor, my mother-in-law’s dog. I keep 2 large bowls of food for my dogs but don’t refill them until both are empty. When Ella, the visiting dog, tried to eat out of the bowl with food in it my 2 largest dogs literally stepped in front of her and kept her away from the bowl. They then proceeded to eat every bit of kibble they could find even though they hadn’t seemed hungry before Ella’s arrival. This is the very essence of Gluttony.

You might readily cede that Gluttony exists in the lesser species of the Animal Kingdom but not that Homo Sapiens, as a species, suffers from it as well. I assure you, humans most definitely suffer from Gluttony and all one need do to see it is look at the list of the World’s Billionaires - Gates, Musk, Zuckerberg, Bloomberg, Buffet, Bezos and so on. The list seems long when, in fact, it’s quite short. In the United States roughly 9,600 Americans have a net worth greater than 100 million dollars. Among those individuals fewer than 800 Americans are worth more than a billion dollars. These are America’s Gluttons.

I noted before that NO ONE EARNS A BILLION DOLLARS and the only thing we need do to confirm this is - math. The highest billing rate I’ve ever seen for an attorney is $2,500 per hour (I note this without opining on whether ANY attorney is worth that amount). In a 40 hour week that’s 100 thousand and 5.2 million annually. Over a 40 year career our “hard working” Senior Partner will earn over 200 million dollars. A lot compared to most folks but a pittance to the nation’s billionaires who would almost certainly scoff at such a figure. The only remaining question then is - HOW do these people, particularly those who don’t inherit such sums, accrue it? This is where Guile comes in.

Webster’s defines Guile as “deceitful, cunning“ which is, in fact, a Hallmark of American “Enterprise.” The aforementioned toad, Iger, is loaded with Guile. Combined with an insatiable appetite for excess and Iger’s version of “let them eat cake,” Guile is as American as apple pie. As a lineal descendant of not one but 2 American families that, in fact, earned what in their day was great wealth I know a thing or 2 about deceit as it was used to steal what my ancestors built. Living on and paying for land my maternal ancestors once owned outright, is a constant reminder of how deceit is used to separate people from their hard earned money. In the World of “Capitalism,” the capitalist typically has an idea that, with luck, he or she can convert into something tangible and valuable. If they’re right, they’re certainly entitled to be fairly compensated for their idea and for taking on the risk of failure. The key word here is FAIRLY.

Bill Gates was largely considered mediocre in terms of his technical skills so he had little if anything to do with the actual success of Microsoft. Warren Buffett was quite good at finding “value” but, in the end, his money was made by leveraging investments and building a de facto equity investment company in the form of Berkshire-Hathaway. One could certainly argue Buffet “earned” what he has by being smarter than other people when, in fact, it was Guile that got him what he has, not his actual blood, sweat and tears. Those who actually create value are never those at the top of the food chain. Those creatures are the result of a deep, narcissistic approach to all things in life. They use Guile to convince the actual creators of wealth that they are not worth much at all and that asking for a larger share of the pie the creators have baked is far from reasonable. Indeed, it’s downright dangerous to Iger’s share and that of his sycophants. It is more than fortuitous the strike began on Bastille Day as the economic realities of France at the outset of the French Revolution were the result of gluttony. Today, I encourage every person who’s ever struggled to make ends meet to support the striking SAG-AFTRA and WGA workers and all who are victims of the Sweat Vampires we so wrongly call Captains of Industry. Instead, I hope that every worker who helps build their employer’s dreams awakens and discovers their true worth. As the French taught us - the People, United, will NEVER be defeated, it’s time to teach the wealthy that lesson, once again.