“Don’t envy the super-rich, they are miserable,” writes the Wall Street Journal’s Robert Frank, author of “Richistan.”
Seriously, even if the American dream is dying for the vast majority of Americans, you should not envy the Super Rich. Why? Money makes them “miserable.” Yes, the heavy burdens of vast wealth that made them rich also made them poor in spirit — socially, psychologically, spiritually bankrupt.
No, this is not just some twisted new defense of trickle-down economics. Not some cockamamie argument that while the guys at the top of the economic pyramid may make vastly more than the average American we must pity them. Yes, we’re asked to believe that the vast wealth of the Super Rich is such a heavy burden to bear, their misery so profound, the rest of America should willingly indulge their greedy excesses.
Oh, puh-leeze. Pity the poor Super Rich? Don’t insult our intelligence.
Guess who paid for the study: Bill Gates. Why? Frank says this “new study co-funded by the Gates Foundation … portrays the ultrarich as lost souls burdened by the fears, worries and family distortions of too much money.” Seriously, “lost souls.”
[ ... ]
In fact, things are so bad for the Super Rich, “most of them still do not consider themselves financially secure; for that, they say, they would require on average one-quarter more wealth than they currently possess.”
No comments:
Post a Comment