Let’s all be poor together

A wealthy woman.

American CEOs are much too rich, live in monstrous, gaudy mansions, and we hate them for it. So whines  Dan Thomasson, a columnist for the Scripps Howard New Service (“Not quite your great-great-grandfather’s log cabin”, July 22, 2013), openly declaring his blatant jealousy. Of a similar philosophy, an NPR commentator, recently opining on the purchase of a $250 million work of art by a wealthy banker, complained that that purchase was only possible because the banker was taxed far too little.

What an odd bunch of economically illiterate hypocrites we are. For while bemoaning the wealth and spending ability of capitalists, we never seem to complain about the affluence of the Hollywood elite or star athletes. Who grumbles about Dustin Pedroia’s recent $110 million contract with the Red Sox? Not I, not you – we love Dustin!

But honestly, folks, while Hollywood and Major League Baseball admittedly generate a few jobs, those pale in comparison to the hundred million jobs created and maintained by our nations bankers and CEOs. Yet we hate capitalists. 

Here’s an idea. Let’s deny the rich their trappings. Huge taxes on yachts, mansions, works of arts. Make it so punitive that we’ll see the end of the $20 million castles that give Thomasson such agita. 

Yay! The anarchists, anti-capitalists, and wealth redistributionists will have won. But who loses? No, really, who loses?

Imagine what goes on in building a $20 million home. Here is a short, incomplete list of losers should we successfully thwart its building.

• The landowner who would have sold the lot and the realtor who managed the sale – both losers.
• The architect and general contractor who would have designed the home and planned the building project – losers.
• The excavator who would have cleared and leveled the lot and dug out the basement – a loser.
• The concrete man who would have built forms for the foundation and poured the concrete – a loser.
• The asphalt guy who would have paved that long, winding drive – a loser.
• The landscaper who would have planned and planted the lawn and shrubs and gardens – another loser.
• The framing carpenters and sheetrock hangers and roofers and electricians and plumbers and HVAC guys – all losers.
• The interior designer, cabinetmakers, carpet layers – all losers.
• The local town, whose assessor's office is forgoing a significant property tax revenue stream – a loser.
• And finally, the grocers and hairdressers and launderers and restaurateurs to all of the above losers – all losers, too.

While our national pastime is to revile capitalistic wealth, we seem terribly shortsighted in not realizing that wealthy people create the vast majority of our jobs. And in addition to that, they spend their money – lots of money. We stifle them at our own economic peril.

So instead of jealously, perhaps Thomasson should stick his neck out. Invest in the market or start a new firm. Hire some employees and make the payroll week after week. Learn what it’s like to manage an international firm where business goes on 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. See what it’s like to spend scant time with his family.

Either that or shed the hypocrisy and write scathing columns about the wealth of Julia Roberts and Dustin Pedroia, too. After all, if we hate wealth, let’s hate all of it. And then we can all be poor together.