I think some of you among the very rich are confused by the criticism you’re encountering these days. Not all by any means, but I’m capable of believing that some of you are genuinely confused. Let me explain one concept, at least, that I think could help you in understanding the many further criticisms you’re encountering.
We simply don’t recognize a right to acquire more and ever more personal wealth long after you have enough money to meet the needs and even every reasonable want of an average person for hundreds of lifetimes, even in the most materially affluent societies.
That’s all. We’re not necessarily determined to take away your hoard, as an end in itself; all of our lives are brief and if we can simply ignore you, then we probably will, in order to make more rewarding use of our limited time.
But when you try to assert this “right” in a way that impedes some other goal which would actually improve lives, we’re no longer willing to see that goal sacrificed to your greed. Because that’s what you’re defending: greed. You have constructed an economic narrative that both requires the consent of the rich for nearly any major socioeconomic activity, and presumes that the rich cannot ever consent to any proposal that would not continue their further enrichment at an equal, or ideally greater, pace.
We no longer care.
Arguments that “we have to keep squeezing the highest prices possible out of society in order to cover costs… of keeping up with an ever-rising ‘market rate’ of compensation for people who will have no legitimate need of more money for the rest of their lives” do not interest us. We have decided that it’s time to explore an alternative of saying “no” to insatiable greed, if that’s what is necessary to say “yes” to a better life for people who still have needs and wants beyond simply a higher “score.”
That’s what’s going on. We no longer care whether or not you agree. We are uninterested in your rebuttals. You have no real argument beyond insatiable greed and we have decided that attempting to sate said greed is a distraction, impossible, and unnecessary.
Sincerely,
All those damn people who simply don’t understand how things work
