However, at a time when 2% of our population controls 98% of the wealth and seems hell-bent on keeping it that way, I’m kind of inclined to agree with the good Sisters of the Perpetual Frown. CEO salaries have reached an astronomical 300 times that paid to your average entry-level worker -- money then used in lobbying efforts to make sure we continue this “free market” downward spiral that’s worked out so well for them.
But I digress…
This is about the kind of rich person I’d want to be. Being a card-carrying “bleeding heart liberal,” I think I would be a pretty soft touch. I’m not happy when I know others are suffering. I don’t subscribe to the right-wing’s doctrine that “people end up in poverty because they’re lazy, so screw ‘em.” I believe that some people had the good fortune to have been born under a pretty lucky star, while others were born under a moon that just happened to be in feces at the time.
Not that I disregard personal responsibility. There have always been deadbeats. Still, by and large, I think we all arrive on planet Earth filled with a shining light of human potential that some people, for whatever reason, have snuffed out earlier than others.
Long, long ago and far, far away in a land known as my youth, there was a TV series called “The Millionaire.” Each week, the kindly Michael Anthony would show up on the doorstep of some unsuspecting soul with a check for a million dollars from a mysterious benefactor. The stories explored ways in which unexpected wealth changed lives for the better or for the worse and, even though I knew the nuns would disapprove, I never missed a show and never stopped wishing for my very own mysterious benefactor.
It would also be great fun to be someone else's mysterious benefactor. Who hasn’t seen hard luck stories on the news and fantasized about how good it would feel to just cut a check to the person? Sure I’d go crazy initially and blow a bundle on a stable of fine horses and a few other toys I’ve had my eye on, but after that and taking care of family and friends, I can’t imagine what the hell I’d do with all that dough if I didn’t give it away.
You read about people winning the lottery and how it turns their whole life to crap. I wonder if that would happen to me, or if I’d end up corrupt like those who use their money as power chips to control the rest of us. I’d like to think that Sister Mary Margaret’s stern warning would resonate somewhere in the recesses of my mind and keep me on a straight enough path so that my ass could still squeeze through the eye of that needle.
Meanwhile, I guess a girl can dream…
Comments make my life richer…
