The Evil Billionaire
April 12, 2021

I can picture a person who decided, early on, that he didn't want to be a cog in someone else's machine, that he wanted to have a greater control over his own destiny and make a life for himself outside the "get a job and work until you die" sort of rat race. He starts out with more or less nothing but does have an idea and goes to work, for himself. Turns out that his idea is popular and people ask for more and more of it. So he hires a few folks and then more and more. Five years later, he has an actual company. He never thought this would get so big but what are you gonna do? 10 years later, the company goes public and the guy is now a billionaire. And the fun begins because now, he's a target.

He hasn't donated to the political party currently in power so some junior congressman, looking to get his name in the media, calls him an exploiter of the working man. A hit piece appears next in the news, citing worker greivances and a senator reminds us all that, you know, he didn't make that company by himself and his success is due to the labor of others. Now a savvy business man, the billionaire sees this shakedown for what it is. He hires a lobbyist who tells him which PAC gets the check this week and everything quiets down. Behind closed doors, he reflects that he now has 100,000 people working for him and these people are doing exactly what he himself set out not to do; working for someone else to make their livings. There may be irony in this but, really, nobody's being forced to work for him and any one of his employees could do what he did, start their own thing, if they dared to try. He tells himself that, well, if nothing else, he's done some good in the world by creating all this work.

Time passes but ominous rumblings appear. Businesses are leaving the country and the "leaders" are getting worried. It's a global economy now and labor cost competitiveness is becoming an issue. The fact that the trade policies promoting offshoring labor costs were championed by the same politicans who are now crying about declining tax revenues as they draft a budget which not only includes a hefty cost-of-living adjustment for themselves but spends far more money the government actually has, is irrelevant. It's the world we live in. But that's not what's truly scary. Some twerp senator who is personally a multi-millionaire despite never having worked a day in his life, is pushing the notion of hitting these billionaires hard to pay for various under-funded government programs. He gets the genius idea of annually taxing stock value appreciation, unrealized gains. Our billionaire businessman, and others like him, are now alarmed. While he's sold enough shares of his company to provide a fantastic lifestyle for himself and his family, a childlike and unsophisticated view of wealth and economics holds that these rich people swim around in pools of money like Scrooge McDuck. Actually, the bulk of his wealth is tied up in the stock of his own company and rises and falls with the share price. He doesn't want to sell portions of his stake in the company but, if crazy legislation such as this were to pass, the business owner would be forced to sell off shares to cover his tax bill simply because the shares have become more valuable...it would be as if you or I were forced to pay tax on an increase in the value of our homes, while we're living in them. And if the share price falls next year, he can't write off the "loss" as it really isn't a loss until he sells, which he doesn't want to do as his shares represent ownership in the company he made for himself from nothing. It's partly pride...but his pride and desire to not dance to someone else's tune is why he is where he in the first place.

Naturally, no one's going to feel sorry for the billionaire and his tax troubles and why should they? He's a billionaire, after all, and has the world at his feet. And the billionaire doesn't need or want anyone to feel sorry for him; he has his government bag-man -sorry, lobbyist- to make things right. But it doesn't work. "See," the lobbyist says, "they really mean it this time. They need the money and have done a great job selling the idea that the way to get it is to take it from the super-rich, since they can afford it." Well, the reason the biliionaire was successful in the first place is because he can read the obvious handwriting on the wall. Rich people fleeing their country for tax reasons is hardly a new thing and maybe it's time for him to make the move. There are foreign governments practically begging him to move his business to their country...and their tax laws are appealing, also. They need to put their own people to work and will help his company in any way to succeed.

PWhew, why did I write all this? Well, there are many forms of brainwashing, such as the characterization of the villainous billionaire and the notion that simply taking more from the rich is the answer to all our problems, as opposed to an angry citizenry demanding that our governments be run more efficiently and that our considerable resources be directed more effectively. Perhaps that anger doesn't always express itself in the most productive manner. And maybe some rich people are evil control freaks...but I'll bet some are just schlubs that hit it big and are trying to care of their business and protect what they made for themselves, as I would. And my unflattering portrayal of our leadership maybe a generality, but generalities aren't, by definition, necessarily inaccurate.