Who Cries For Apollo?

As debts and deficits soar on both the national (nation debt has just past the $14 trillion mark as of writing this) and state levels (CA has a $9 billion dollar debt as of writing this) once again the great villain of it all is “the rich” and their “greed”. Never mind the other 90-99% of the population (depending whose statistics you reference as to what income or wealth level constitutes “the rich”).

Never mind the laws, regulations and policies enacted over 40 years by politicians – most of whom themselves are rich by anyone’s definition! – and the impact those have had on growing this crisis. And never mind the same politicians and pundits who, with a spine of unset Jell-O, refused to stand up and say this or that social trend was self-destructive, childish whining, or just plain wrong but instead catered in full to those trends and destructive behaviors.

And, as sure as the sun rises in the East (do we need a law for that too?) more and more the talking heads are calling on retribution – that’s the only way to describe it – on “the rich” for being “rich”. With phrases like “income inequality” and “hoarding wealth” being the table talk of the day on so many opinion shows and in editorials (and editorials disguised as news stories).

Now stop and really think: What would America be without “the rich”?

Besides all the businesses, industry, inventions, and services that have been created and distributed by “the rich” who own these businesses, “the rich” are also the ones who contribute the most philanthropy (i.e. charity). All the hospitals, schools, neighborhood centers etc funded at least in part by “the rich”.

Why do you suppose every major (and a lot of smaller) hospitals have dedications such as ‘Joe Smith Cancer Center’, ‘Mary Jane Rehabilitation Facility’, ‘The Goodwin Family Pediatric Trauma Center’, and so on??

How many ‘Congressman Jackson Burn Center’, ‘Senator George Kapslin Geriatric Care Wing’, or ‘President Infectious Disease Research Department’ have you seen? The names sometimes show up on airports, highways, bridges and tunnels but rare if ever on hospitals.

Same for schools. There are places such as “The Carnegie School of Technology”, “The Cohen Children’s Hospital” and “Ann Scheiber School Of Nursing”.

Why?

Because these people willingly gave their own money – often earned and saved over an entire life time – for the benefit of others. It was not confiscated because someone in a legislative chamber or administrative office decided to take it from them for the betterment of someone else.

And, just as equally, as it was their choice to give their earned wealth it is their choice not to give it.

That does not constitute “hoarding”. It’s their money!

But who is going to stand up for “the rich”?What PAC or grass roots effort will stand for “the rich”?How many people will bleed tears for whoever is defined as “the rich” based on some arbitrary income or wealth level of the day?


No one.

They are an easy target.

And as such it is the height of tyranny to rob some person’s fruit of hard labor to give to someone else just because the former has more than the latter. A nation that adopts this social policy is doomed to slide quickly from greatness to mediocrity or worse.

By the way, Star Trek fans may recognize the title of this article. It didn’t end well for him either.