"The Rich" – The New American Punching Bag?

Seems there days you can't open a magazine or newspaper, turn on most TV news (Fox News being a notable exception) or read most news and commentary websites without yet some other national problem being blamed on "the rich".

Healthcare? "The Rich" aren't paying enough!
Social Security? "The Rich" aren't paying enough!
Schools? "The Rich" aren't paying enough!
Housing? "The Rich" aren't paying enough!
Banks and insurance? "The Rich" aren't paying enough!
etc
etc
etc

There are many articles and sites dedicated to maligning "the rich" and MasterPo is not one of them!

But how – and more interestingly, when – did we get to this point?

"The rich" are an easy target. Hard to garner sympathy for someone who makes perhaps 10 times or more than you do and yet says they can't afford to pay more taxes. Doesn't help either when the news constantly report sensational stories of celebrity divorce settlements where a spouse only married for a year or two (and that originally came from very modest means) receives millions in settlement and then claims how unfair it is.

When MasterPo was little MasterPo was inspired to be "rich". As just a kid MasterPo wasn't clear how exactly MasterPo was going to get there. MasterPo did know it had to do with working for it. But MasterPo always wanted to be "rich".

More importantly, MasterPo (and MasterPo’s parents) did not see "the rich" as the enemy. "The rich" were not seen as evil or immoral and certainly not as the brunt of the cause of all that is wrong in America.

Even when MasterPo grew up more, went to school and then ultimately college MasterPo still didn't view "the rich" as evil. MasterPo certainly had good reason if so wanted to view them that way. MasterPo’s mother literally worked nights and weekends to help pay for college. MastePo received next to nothing in financial aid in spite of MasterPo’s mother being a widow and MasterPo himself maintaining an "A" average. Meanwhile, there were kids who drove to school from Dix Hills and Commack (those were very ritzy areas of Long Island back in MasterPo's college days; Still are to a great extent) in daddy's Corvette or Porsche that MastePo knows for a fact were getting lots of grants and other non-repayable financial aid! (the school's comment about it was "There will always be those who slip through the cracks"). Obviously these families had better accountants and planners than we had to help them hide their wealth on paper (because they certainly weren't hiding it in life!). Yet even still MasterPo didn't hate them for being "rich". MasterPo hated the overt blindness of the school to what was going on but not to the "rich" people.

In school itself MasterPo had many friends who were studying business, accounting, finance, marketing, advanced computers and engineering programs, even pre-law and pre-med, etc. None of these are careers that are slouchy payers. So they didn't seem to hate "the rich" and in fact inspired to be one too.

And those who are most loud in attacking "the rich" as not doing enough are themselves among some of the wealthiest people in the country. Does anyone consider Chris Dodd, Nancy Pelosi, Barney Frank, Harry Reid, Bill and Hilary Clinton or President Obama to be run-of-the-mill middle class? Can anyone tell MasterPo with a straight face at any time in the last 20 years these people had to make the choice of paying for food or a utility bill? Let's be real!

You simply can not have a growing, healthy, prosperous economy by taking money from those who have earned it!

Who in their right mind would work so hard to achieve higher levels of success without the potential for the great financial gains?

Don't give MasterPo the crap about loving your work or just wanting to help people! Anyone who says they work long and hard but don't care about money must be independently wealthy already. If not they are either a fool or a liar – or both!

With high income and wealth comes high achievement. You simply can not separate the two. The very essence of human nature is work for a goal. The harder the work, the greater the goal that includes the realistic chance of achieving it (but not a guarantee necessarily) and then keeping it once achieved.

Life is not a board game where at the end of it you put the piece back in for the next time.

Attacking "the rich" is the cause of problems, not the solution.

Destroy the very real goal of achieving and keeping wealth and you handicap innovation and incentive.

Next time you're out of work ask a poor person for a job. Then come back here. MasterPo would love to know how that goes!