The Myth of the "Benevolent Billionaire"
More than once, albeit not too often, I hear capitalist sycophants talk about a benevolent Billionaire. In reality there is no such creature on planet Earth. The reason for this is quite simple - NO ONE becomes a Billionaire unless some other person or group is exploited. Let’s revisit the math for starters - if a person earns $2,500 per hour (doing whatever “work” has such a value), they will gross $5.2 million per year. Over 30 years that’s a whopping $156 million dollars - not bad work if you can find it. If that same person moves up the corporate ladder and earns $10,000.00 per hour the numbers, of course, jump. Their earnings over 30 years become an almost unimaginable - $624 million! Feel free to disagree but when I measure success by how much one benefits the average Joe or Jane ain’t NOBODY worth that kind of pay.
What of, one might ask, the person who gained his or her billions via equity funds, Buffet-like stock picks, or the ever laughable - inheritance (since NOTHING inherited is by its nature, earned)? The fundamental equation never changes. All things of great value begin with the most ignoble of efforts. The earliest signs of Capitalism involved the obtainment and sale of essential items - food, shelter, clothing and the like. The birth of the middleman in, of all places, the Middle East, enlarged the foundation upon which modern day Capitalism was built. The middleman sold the goods obtained or made by working farmers, tailors, carpenters (you know I had to include that one) and every other craftsman to end users (who we now refer to as Consumers) in exchange for a small markup for his or her “services.” Eventually the role of the middleman increased in scope. Now he or she bought the goods from the maker of them and created a “market” for them. The makers also increased their “net worth” as they were able to use their profits (funds above and beyond costs) to hire laborers. Thus the entrepreneur was born.
Over the centuries these de facto pyramids grew in both scope and size. Exactly like the pharaohs with which so many wonders of the ancient world are associated, it was the masons and other laborers who not only built those wonders, many died while constructing them. NONE of what we view as wealth in the ancient world could have come to exist without the large mass of working laborers to create it. Nothing has really changed since then except that, while we can look at many of the ancient wealthy and consider their wealth ill gotten, we created the myth of the benevolent Billionaire. There is no moral difference between the Despotic Kings and Emperors who amassed great wealth over the centuries and today’s actual Billionaires. While tokens that represent currency have changed their use has not.
Once upon a time many Americans, at least in terms of percentage, grew or raised their own food. The original Americans, who were not versed in the “value” of shiny metals or pieces of paper with someone’s picture on them were instead reliant on the methods employed by our ancestors for literal thousands of years - they hunted and gathered the true riches provided by nature. This was all but sacrilegious to the European immigrants who couldn’t understand why someone would hunt (or gather) when they could simply go to the market and buy the fruit of someone else’s labor.
Throughout this very brief and broad review of the roots of modern Capitalism the unifying element is and has always been - LABOR. What billionaires and their sycophants have learned, is that they needed (and still need) to build an infrastructure, in pyramid form, so that the value of the efforts below the peak would flow to the top. Thus the birth of equity funds, REITs, mutual funds, securities “brokers,” etc…, was essential in order for those at the top to try and sate their insatiable hunger for MORE. Despite this harsh reality, the myth of the benevolent Billionaire has persisted and the reason is quite simple - self protection.
Billionaires are nothing if not suspicious, jealous and true lovers of money and material things. They are very well aware that no matter how many monopolies they create the underlying source of true value will never change. What they DON’T understand is the motivations of the creators of wealth - the workers of the world.
As a child my mother sometimes worked in the Citrus groves in and near the City of Pomona picking fruit. She didn’t do this because it was some form of fun but rather because she was helping to support her family. This is true of almost every worker that lives today. They work for what they love and not for love of money. At some point in the construction of the Pyramid of Greed the “wealthy” sold the one thing they had that was of greatest value - their humanity. Workers however know they’ve “made it” when their families have all they need - physically, spiritually and emotionally. Billionaires, on the other hand, can never have all they want because of the deep, yawning maw inside them that exists where their humanity once did.
No one who is insatiable can ever be whole nor can such a being EVER be truly benevolent. Webster’s defines benevolence as a “disposition to do good.” Billionaires want to be perceived as benevolent however their benevolence is solely about keeping the workers at bay. If they really want to be benevolent Jesus of Nazareth told one of their kind he only needed to give away all that he had, and he walked away with his head down. As he walked away Jesus told his followers, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than it is for a wealthy man to enter the Kingdom of God.
Having formally studied biblical exegesis for more than a few years I am aware that Jesus was referring to a small entrance through which camels could not easily pass. Imagine carrying a 75 pound backpack when you come upon a small entrance that will take you to your destination. You can see through the entrance to the other side and see that it is, in fact, where you want to be. Would you leave your backpack if you could not pass through otherwise? The truth is that far too many would not. Whether an actual backpack, a private jet, a 500 million dollar yacht or sprawling villas around the world billionaires can NEVER leave what they deem essential behind. Workers however know that what (and who) they deem essential can literally follow them through the entrance to the ultimate other side. Bon voyage to one and all.