And I just can't see no humor
About your way of life
And I think I can do more for you
With this here fork and knife
Eat the Rich - Aerosmith
Reading about the obscenity of wealth of the 10 richest men vrs the bottom 50% of the planet I could not help but singing the lyrics from this catchy Aerosmith song from 1993s Get a Grip.
But what was going through my head afterwards was the old political adage of Reform from above or revolt form below and I can already see the seeds of revolt starting to sprout and no indication of reform from the halls above.
I am also struck by the though that we worry about drug and alcohol addiction but almost no-one is talking about wealth addiction** (although a few are).
So perhaps its time to decide if we are happy with there being no limit on how much money a person can accumulate, a maximum wage just as much as we have a minimum wage.
And if that makes me a communist so be it because if it cant be fixed by them above it will be fixed by those below and there are a lot more of those below than them above.
The idea of us venerating wealth as seed of our society and the end all be all of virtue has lead to this: a class of people who see no wrong in accumulating as much wealth as they can no matter how it affects the rest of the world and I cant see how there would not be a correlation between those things.
And don't listen to any of those old arguments about how wealth for some begets wealth for all, its all lies designed to keep you hoping otherwise we would have seen it by now.
Instead go and read Power and Greed by Pilippe Gigantes and see what kind of moral and social codes we should be following and how to deal with Grand Aquisitors like our lucky 10***.
No its not an endorsement for a rabid bout of cannibalism (but I do occasionally wonder what the ultra wealthy might taste like if barbecued over a bonfire of their own money and luxury possessions and then served with a side of an over priced luxury mustard).
And that's what will happen if things don't change and its not enough that a Billionaire decides to give their money away (as some have done), they should not be allowed to accumulate that much in the first place.
Just keep on repeating those words again and again as you ponder what's next - Reform from above or revolt from below.
You know what to do.
*-This crap.
**-The Salon article has a point about it not being a legitimate excuse for the behavior of Wall Street but its still not that hard to imagine how these people think as they pile their cash up like Scrooge McDuck.
***-I know what you are thinking if you do read this but doesn't it ever strike you as strange as one of the fundamentals of all major religions is some form of prohibition on behaving like a greedy asshole?
Inequality of wealth wouldn't matter, indeed it might be a good thing, if those holding the preponderance of wealth had wisdom, justice and compassion in the same proportion. Unfortunately they don't, for reasons that are not hard to determine, and in the real circumstances of our world greater equality of wealth and income would do much for the happiness, peace and security of the human race. However humanity's real problem is not financial inequality, but the moral deficit which finds just one of its many expressions in material inequality. So simply re-distributing wealth and income will not bring about something approximating Utopia, and I would go further to suggest that when this system falls, it will fall in response to the trumpets of righteousness, and not to the rather more narrow demand for fairer shares of wealth and power. Having said that Jesus Christ made some very pertinent observations on the relative merits of the wealthy and the poor, and the prophet Muhammed prescribed practical measures to ensure that wealth was fairly spread among the population. Despite all indications to the contrary, it is religion, and not left-wing politics, that will bring the world back to some kind of sensible order.
ReplyDeleteAmen to that brother!
ReplyDelete