Firstly, money is a social construct that, conceptually, is awarded to an entity for providing some useful good or service, to an individual or group, or to society at large.
When one individual has as much wealth as 40 percent of American households combined, it's time to redistribute the wealth.
http://www.osjspm.org/101_wealth.htmLet's take a look at the ten wealthiest people in America.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6082174/Numbers one and three are Bill Gates and Paul Allen of Microsoft fame. Gates gives a good bit of money to charity and Allen built a wicked cool rock and roll museum, but what have they really done for society in the big picture? They built fortunes through dishonest and monopolistic business practices, and stifling competition.
Warren Buffett is sandwiched between the Microsoft buddies. He has a fortune around $41 billion, amassed through a history of impressive stock-picking. How has this stock-picking acumen really benefitted anyone but Buffett himself?
Positions four through eight on the list are owned by the heirs to Sam Walton, the founder of Wal Mart. They have a combined wealth of about $90 billion. They have amassed their fortunes through their exploitation of the environment, the communites in which they operate, and their employees. And mostly by being born.
Number nine is Michael Dell. I don't have a lot to say about him. Except that he gave $200,000 to the 2000 campaign of George W. Bush. I wonder why he did that?
And then there's Larry Ellsion. He's a lot like Gates. Using dirty tactics, he built a huge technology company. And then, sensing an opportunity to make even a lot more money to buy private planes, boats, and islands, lobbied the government to set up a proprietary database on all American citizens.
http://www.wired.com/news/privacy/1,63450-0.htmlIn that list, I can't locate a person who truly deserves the trappings of their immense wealth. Don't get me wrong. I don't want to take all their money away, but is too much to ask that they make a meaningful contribution to the people of the nation that has been so excessively kind to them?
Given the huge numbers of Americans who live in poverty, given the numbers of people who don't have health insurance, given the numbers that aren't adequately educated, given the numbers of people that aren't give a fair chance at realizing their potential, is it too much to ask that these pampered billionaires pay their fair share to help America to be all that it can be?
Or is that just too much to ask?