by Barry Goldman
“Who is rich?” the Talmud asks. “He who is satisfied with what he has.”
By that measure, I’m richer than Musk and Bezos. I’m richer than Stephen Schwartzman, head of the Blackstone Group. Far richer than Trump. It’s a nice feeling.
Part of the explanation for this is that I am an old man. Getting and spending is a young man’s game. I have no interest in new toys. Part of the explanation has to do with my particular circumstances. I have been very lucky. But the bulk of the explanation has less to do with how much I have than with how little I want.
I like to sit in my reclining chair with my feet on the footrest and Gracie, one of our Maine Coons, on the arm rest. We are in precisely this configuration as I write. I don’t see how my condition would improve if I had a 25-room house. Or a private island in the Caribbean.
There is a wonderful story about Diogenes the Cynic and Alexander the Great. It seems Diogenes was relaxing in the sunshine one afternoon when Alexander walked over. He said, “I’m Emperor Alexander the Great, ruler of the known world. I control limitless wealth of every description. They tell me you’re Diogenes, and you’re very wise. What can I do for you? Name it and it’s yours.” Diogenes said, “Could you move over, you’re blocking my light.”
I feel like that. I don’t want Jeff Bezos’ yacht or Stephen Schwartzman’s mansion. I don’t see the point. I can only sit in one chair at a time, and I’m already sitting in one.
I am not saying this to brag about my virtue. My attitude isn’t virtuous. Bezos’ and Schwartzman’s attitude is pathological.
They have hundreds of thousands of times more money than I do, and they spend their time trying to get more. Why? What good could it possibly do them? Buy another house? John McCain couldn’t remember how many houses he had, and the number was in the single digits. Musk just got a $50 billion bonus. He could use it to buy 5,000 ten-million-dollar houses. Numbers at that scale just don’t make any sense.
What, I wonder, happened to the idea of diminishing marginal utility? Everyone who has ever taken an economics course or eaten a large pizza understands the concept. The first slice of pizza and the first glass of beer are wonderful. And the second is very nice too. But as you keep eating and drinking, the increase in happiness you get from each additional slice, the “marginal utility,” gets smaller. At some point you’d just as soon not have another beer. You’d rather do something else. The same ought to be true of houses. By the time you can’t remember how many houses you have, the increase in happiness you get from acquiring another one ought to be zero. But that doesn’t seem to be how it works for these guys.
It’s like something inside of them is broken. It’s remarkable in a way. But it’s remarkable in the way Joey Chestnut is remarkable. Chestnut could eat 83 hot dogs in 10 minutes. No one else in the world could do that. But there is only a small portion of humanity who would want to eat 83 hot dogs in 10 minutes.
John Kenneth Galbraith said, “I like paying taxes. It’s how I buy civilization.” I can’t say I like paying taxes. But I understand that someone has to pay for civilization. It seems self-evident to me that the cost should be borne by the people who can best afford it. I don’t spend time and effort looking for ways to hide my money in offshore tax havens or phony shell companies. I pay my taxes because it’s my responsibility.
Contrast Stephen Schwartzman. He famously compared the Obama administration’s plan to raise the tax rate on carried interest to Hitler’s invasion of Poland. What could possibly explain that view other than some sort of pathology?
There is the idea out there in some circles that if we just let the great captains of industry like Koch and Bezos run free with minimum regulation and minimum taxation, their genius will generate so much innovation and create so much wealth it will be better for everyone. According to this view, libertarianism is really utilitarianism. Market fundamentalism will result in the greatest good for the greatest number.
I don’t believe that’s what the oligarchs really think. Trickle-down story is strictly for the rubes. Lower taxes for fabulously rich people isn’t good because it creates jobs and wealth that will trickle down and raise all boats. It’s good because it means rich people get to have more money, which means they can continue to pay off enough politicians to keep it that way forever.
According to Oxfam, “Since 2020, the richest five men in the world have doubled their fortunes. During the same period, almost five billion people globally have become poorer.” This trend is not going to change by itself.
Louis Brandeis said, “we can have democracy in this country or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of the few, but we can’t have both.”
Here are some bullet points from Bernie Sanders’ Forward to the Oxfam report:
- Never before in human history have so few owned so much.
- Never before in human history has there been such income and wealth inequality.
- Never before in history have we had such huge concentrations of ownership.
- Never before in history have we seen a billionaire class with so much political power.
- And never before have we seen this unprecedented level of greed, arrogance and irresponsibility on the part of the ruling class.
- In the United States, three people own more wealth than the bottom half of society, while over 60% of workers live paycheck to paycheck. Despite massive increases in worker productivity and an explosion in technology, real weekly wages for the average American worker are lower today than they were 50 years ago.
I agree with Sen. Sanders that inequality is one of the defining issues of our time. I just don’t think we should call it “inequality.” When CEO pay was 20 times average worker pay, “inequality” was a perfectly good term. Now that, “It would take 1,200 years for a female worker in the health and social sector to earn what a CEO in the biggest Fortune 100 companies earns on average in one year,” the word Inequality isn’t up to the job. From where Gracie and I sit, Pathology, Absurdity and Obscenity come closer.
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