I've been meaning to write about this for quite a while. With some distance between my thoughts from then to now.
In my very long career as a business consultant (financial planning, corporate and personal tax services, management, controller) I was involved with many millionaires. Supreme wealth of the yacht, race horses, multiple homes in multiple countries types. Some were in media, others in industry, some in entertainment.
And I have to say the majority of these self made millionaires were very smart but incredibly selfish. They gave little to charity and had the utmost contempt for those who were in poverty or struggling. They resented any kind of social programmes, calling all who availed of them welfare bums. If they could make it, anyone could. But people were lazy, holding their hands out, watching TV, smoking and drinking beer all day while everyone else slaved to support these layabouts.
All of them inspired their underlings to accommodate their every whim whether through unpaid overtime or in a couple of cases manage their personal life styles as well. As examples of that I will offer assuring their wives they were off to Bermuda on a last minute business trip with a Russian financier when, in fact, they were off with the latest blonde. Or managing personal bank accounts with pay-offs (read blackmail) to ladies of the night or some unexpected results of a one night stand, or obscure payoffs to foreign bankers for looking the other way.
I was privy to many business conferences with tables of millionaires eating caviar and drinking champagne for lunch. In my younger and more foolish days, I wallowed in the reflected glow of being around these people, dropping their names casually into conversations, sharing my benefits of desirable theatre seats or visits to television show sets. It had an infectious quality to it all. I realize, in hindsight, how absolutely obnoxious I must have been in my champagne coloured Mustang with my matching business suit. I was at all the important meetings, taking notes for my boss, reviewing different financial statistics with him in consultation with the others, acquiring more assets, disposing of others.
In chatting with a multi-millionaire one night at one of those exclusive steak houses that didn't even have a name out front, I asked the question: when does anyone have enough money, adding it was a serious question. My companion repeated the question to the entire table, about 8. The response was laughter, genuine laughter.
My dear, said one, down the table from me, there is never enough, there is always more.
More laughter followed - me, to my shame, joining in.
And there you have it, dear reader, now you can understand the Trumpian World.
"They" may look down on us, but we are not all of us "lazy welfare bums", some genuinely can't find work, with hundreds of applicants for every position offered, with others being either over or under-educated for whatever job they apply for. Further, with so much manufacturing now being done in third-world countries, there aren't the factory jobs available as there was last century.
ReplyDeleteI might be lazy now, retired and 73, but in my working years at facories and supermarkets I worked myself to the bone, literally, weighing as little as 59kg, doing all the overtime hours offered to keep the bills paid and put food on the table while hubby, in spite of a good wage, was always broke from smoking, drinking amd gambling. Without the gambling, we would have been much better off, though never filthy rich.
Exactly River, they have no understanding of poverty or struggling and the sad part is they never want to. It keeps them inoculated from the real world. Keeps them "safe" from reality. I relate to the hard work when there's no choice to put food on the table and the bills paid. My weeks were often 80 hours being paid for just half of that, but terror stricken of losing my job, feeling powerless. Needing the references if I moved on. Trapped.
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How embarassing for "your" group!
ReplyDeleteEnough money is what covers all basic needs and a few wants
Enough is a good thing Kylie. I have enough and am so grateful for all in my life.
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This is my brother. Rabid Trumper. Wealthy; has enough money to last two lifetimes. Looks down on those who don't, especially the elderly poor. That they somehow brought it on themselves. I read where people think some MAGA will turn on Trump. But many, like my brother, are only becoming more rabid. Every day here it is more discouraging. Although I have seen one or two Republicans starting to peek their heads out of their holes in the ground and speak up.
ReplyDeleteIt's really difficult when our siblings are right wingers. I can relate. The topics to avoid in conversation, etc. There are no enlightening moments or conversions to a more charitable or socially aware stance. Greed and cruelty (unconscious perhaps) take over and notably there is never enough.
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Yes the "hardness" and ununderstanding of the well-to-do is a thing that never makes me stop wondering. Although those I know, are not multi-mega-millionaires, they still have that same attitude of mixed contempt and ununderstanding. If you want money for charity, don't ask thoose, ask the people who could use some more money for themselves instead.
ReplyDeleteYes, Charlotte, the poorest among us give the most to charity has been my experience in preparing tax returns. But there are far too few of the wealthy giving any kind of fair share. They seriously believe there is never enough. A form of addiction.
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Why is everything about Trump?
ReplyDeleteI don't have any desire to understand that. It is disgusting.
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