We live in the age of envy. Rather than celebrate success (real success, not the crony kind) we tend to dismiss it, resent those who have the wealth and demand that they pay higher tax rates than everyone else.
According to the results of the latest Bloomberg National Poll, most Americans hold an unfavorable view of the nation’s rich. Just a third of Americans said they viewed the financial industry positively and said they distrust billionaires more than they admire him.
Here is what the news outlet writes:
Bankers, for their part, have been expressing their sympathy for Americans’ frustrations. Dimon unleashed a diatribe last week about the nation’s failure to address the opioid epidemic, economic growth and education, blaming dysfunctional politics and the media. Blankfein recently took to Twitter, calling for unity in Washington and for the U.S. to emulate China’s infrastructure programs.
The CEOs have sought to rehabilitate their banks’ brands in the wake of a crisis that left more than 8 million Americans out of work and cost shareholders tens of billions of dollars in fines and legal settlements. Blankfein, for example, created a business standards committee and responded to public outrage over Goldman Sachs’s compensation practices by taking $500 million from bonuses to provide money and advice to budding entrepreneurs through the firm’s 10,000 Small Businesses program.
But two major events last year — Britain’s vote to leave the European Union and Donald Trump’s surprise election — show the limits of the bankers’ sway over the public. Both Dimon and Blankfein opposed Brexit and indicated their support for Trump’s Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton.
Unfortunately, more than half (52 percent) of Americans view the Federal Reserve favorably. This is the highest score the United States central bank has garnered since September 2009. They are the real culprits of economic ruin and a rising cost of living.
Take away the cronyism, the connections and the politics, and you see many Americans envious of the rich.
Legendary free market economist Thomas Sowell said it best:
“Envy plus rhetoric equals social justice.”
He also wrote in Town Hall in 2003:
Although the poor are doing better, the “social justice” crowd is in desperate shape. Irresponsible advocacy groups concoct wild statistics about hunger or homelessness, and some of these numbers are reported seriously in the media — at least until someone comes along and shoots them down with the facts.
The envy advocates have to play games with numbers because they cannot get very far relying on realities. Yes, some people can afford extravagantly expensive designer jeans, while others have to get by wearing jeans without anyone’s signature across their backside. Yes, some people can afford a pricey latte, while others have to go home and open a can of Maxwell House.
But who is going to get up from watching TV, while eating pizza, to go mount the barricades over that? Let’s face it. Envy has fallen on hard times. It was not even successfully revived during last year’s election campaign.
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