kill the rich man
If we want to build an economic democracy, we need to name our enemies and despise them. Bashing ambitious plutocrats is the place you need to start.
Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz speaks at Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona. (Gage Skidmore)
Howard Schultz and Ken Griffin are billionaires with bad reputations. Schultz, who rose to fame selling expensive luxury coffee with Italian labels, quickly transformed into an arrogant fool who thinks his wealth qualifies him for the presidency. The lesser known Griffin recently splashed out $238 million of his hedge fund earnings on a future penthouse overlooking Central Park that will be the most expensive home in U.S. history. Griffin, a Republican donor, is also building a mansion in Palm Beach, Florida, costing at least $10 million more.
Not so long ago, many Americans would have reacted to these two characters with a mixture of awe and envy. But since the financial collapse a decade ago, the idea that “greed is good” is more likely to elicit scorn than smiles. A national poll in January found a clear majority supported the idea of doubling the marginal income tax rate for the wealthiest to 70 percent. A society that “allows billionaires to exist” while some Americans live in poverty is “immoral,” Congresswoman Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez declared as she entered Congress. proposed significant revenue increases in the first week.
Suspicion of people with extreme wealth is not just a moral sentiment. It has always been essential to gaining public support for reforms that would make America a slightly more decent society. The image of an arrogant businessman wearing a top hat and diamond stick pin helped inspire progressive income taxes and regulations on major banks and railroads. Disgust with the money-grabbing speculators who caused the Great Depression sparked the New Deal and emboldened the rise of the CIO-led labor movement. After Franklin Roosevelt denounced “economic royalists” in his 1936 acceptance speech, he recorded one of the biggest landslides in American history.
This sentiment alone would not result in higher taxes on the wealthy, would not give workers seats on corporate boards, would not place limits on individual campaign contributions, and would not result in any component of a Green New Deal. Also not passed. Both the left and the labor movement are still too weak to take full advantage of changes in public opinion. And then a creepy billionaire gets elected president by spouting populist rhetoric, and ends up running for re-election by doing the same thing again. But his desire to build an economic democracy requires him to name his enemies and despise them. We need to start bashing ambitious plutocrats like Mr. Schultz and Mr. Griffin.
