Keith Milne
By Keith C. Milne
The Top Ten! I used to always want to be in this group while I was growing up! Actually, I never thought about wealthy people all that much, despite the fact that I grew up in the very wealthy community of Santa Barbara, CA, until I was preadolescent. Back then, the simple, and extraordinarily exciting idea of someday making “A Million Dollars” was amazing to me! Somehow, even back then at such a young age, I knew that I likely had a better shot at making that kind of money living in the United States of America than I did living in almost any other country in the world. At least I thought so. And, back then during my early youth, I never even considered racial implications, I was too young to realize how the color of one’s skin might make or break life chances for success, or not, for so many, not just in America, but nearly every corner of the globe.
That was before I learned about differential treatment based on economic background (amongst others), and differential life-chances for success or failure based on the economic situation you were born into. Rich kids, tend to grow up and continue being rich, while poor kids tend to grow up to continue being poor. While in the working and middle-classes, once in a blue-moon, there will be someone who breaks out of their socioeconomic situation, usually via talent, like singing or acting or via inventing, and who might actually become wealthy.
There aren’t many of us who haven’t heard about legendary Jeff Bezos who started Amazon.com in his garage, or Sergey Brin and Larry Page’s starting Google in a college dorm room. While attending Stanford University in 1995, Page and his friend Sergey Brin came up with the idea of improving data extraction capabilities while accessing the Internet. Mark Zuckerberg founder of Meta/Facebook enjoys a similar story. And there were many others who also worked out of garages, or banded together during their off time with coworkers to expand on ideas born out of the technologies, math, coding, and hardware of the time to give birth to all that we now live with for better or worse. Many other inventor’s were also successful and lessor known, but equally important to major technologic breakthroughs, but in a more ancillary way, like memory chips aside a main processor, but there were also quite a few who failed at their aspirations or the money ran out before they could complete their work.
While it is easy to idolize these folks, it is just as easy to fail to realize all that underlies this magic. What is often missing from the picture are the Harvard friendships, the upper-middle class upbringing, and the white-collar parents that made it all possible. Most blue collar kids are lucky to be able to get into a regular state college simply for economic reasons alone! Many others who grow up poor, have to start working even while they are still in high school and give all of their money to their families in order to help the family survive.
In 1994, Jeff Bezos founded Amazon.com in a garage in Seattle, shortly after he resigned from the hedge fund giant D.E. Shaw. He wasn’t starving then, or ever for that matter. Neither was Steve Jobs, or Bill Gates, or Steve Ballmer, or Mark Zuckerberg, or ANY of the folks who are the wealthiest in the world. Big surprise!
So, whether or not all of this wealth came out of the early days of tech, or a passing of the torch by the super wealthy to their children, or out of a simple idea fleshed out inside the confines of someone’s garage inventing something new to bedazzle us with, vast sums of money have changed hands going from from the hands of the billions of us, “the many,” into the hands of the few of them, “the super-rich,” and it seems to concentrate more every year!
While much of this wealth may be “unrealized,” or tied up as shares of stock that have appreciated in value, or are actual buildings or hard assets that would have to be sold in order for the wealth to be usable, or as non-receivable cash that is being funneled right back into the business so that it remains non-taxable, the total amount of economic power that all of this wealth, both realized and unrealized, represents, is enough economic capital to solve virtually every single major problem that threatens the health and overall well being of those who inhabit this planet. Okay, maybe not all the problems, but there would be more than enough resources made available to ensure that every man, woman, and child on the planet in need of any of the essentials of what comprises the bottom foundation of Maslow’s Hierarchy of psycho-social needs— The Physiologic Rung, which is comprised of air, water, food, shelter, sleep, clothing, and reproduction, would be met, but would also allow for universal healthcare for the entire globe, and also be enough to go a long way towards providing for the second rung of the hierarchy to be realized by most as well!
Every living person deserves quality air to breath, food to eat, proper clothing for the weather, basic shelter, AND healthcare, and these should be basic human rights, not just nice things for those privileged enough to be able to afford them!
The countries of the world need to contribute to a global fund, or participate in agreed upon program that all wealthy countries would agree to become a part of, like a NATO alliance that imposes a “country tax” which funds the needs of the poor, the weak, the disabled, the sick, and the elderly, and anything else that needs fixing up or taking care of for the most vulnerable people of our world.
Countries would pay into the “Global Care Fund” (just made that up-sounds right doesn’t it?) proportional to the total Gross National Product of the country. That percentage would be quantified into a dollar amount that each country would collect from a special tax to be levied onto the wealthiest people in each country. The wealthiest in each country paying the largest percentage of this special tax, which would be laddered down the scale to include this special tax on any income above $500 million, with no deductions allowed. What would be so wrong with that? REALLY!
I can hear all the so-called conservatives shouting “Socialism!” and “liberal progressives!” but let me turn it around a little bit on you mister billionaire! HOW MUCH DO YOU REALLY NEED ANYWAY?
The amount that will answer that question honestly seems to be INFINITE or as much as possible! Many in this 1% financial league, and many more that want to be in that league, might argue that there is nothing wrong with this. I would argue that keeping an amount that would be hard for anybody to spend in a lifetime or many lifetimes should be enough. To simply continue stashing more and more away, and have it all just sitting in an off-shore bank account doing nothing but earning even more interest is simply immoral. The only moral thing to then do is set up automated transfers so that all assets and future earnings beyond a predetermined amount would be funneled towards ensuring that the neediest people in the world have at least the bottom rung of Maslow’s pyramid in place.
Most of humanity lives on FAR LESS than the equivalent of $100K U.S. per year! Even in the United States the average income of an ordinary working person as of 2019 was just under $67K. Jeff Bezos makes $205m per day, $8.56m per hour, and $142,667 per minute. That is not a typo! It’s kind of hard to imagine that kind of incredible difference in scale! Many people will never even earn $1 or $2 Million in their entire lives! There are so many pressing problems that could be helped by all of this vast wealth instantly!
Sure, Warren Buffet has sworn to give his wealth away as he lives and finish doing so when he dies, but he still has a huge ego about being rich, and wants to remain in this elite group! He once was the richest man in the world. He laughingly confesses that his Berkshire Hathaway stock earnings keep surpassing his ability to give it away. In answer to that I say you can take your $5 Billion off the top Warren, then set your entire estate up to automate giving all over that amount away forever.
The same goes for you Mr. Bill Gates! Yes, you have a great charitable foundation, and you also plan to give your wealth all away. However, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation receives the lion’s share of Warren Buffet’s assets and attempts to give his wealth away too, so it might take awhile.
Many of us want to earn or make as much money as possible.
However, once a person acquires so much wealth that they couldn’t spend it if they wanted to, while it could be used to do so much good for billions of people and to improve the health of the planet itself. Not donating the excess to pay for all that good against the rise of authoritarianism, a global pandemic that has killed millions, crumbling infrastructure, serious poverty, inequality, starvation, drought, and rising sea levels that are threatening to displace millions who live along many of the world’s coastline’s is simply immoral, and should be condemned by all.
I challenge the world’s wealthy to rethink the path that they have been on and realign the financial outcome of their amazing contributions so that they still have all that they could ever want or need, but will then will decide to give the rest up so that all the rest of humanity–wealthy or not–can live on a clean planet with their basic needs met as a baseline way of existence for everyone on planet Earth.
Preserving the planet with clean air and water and a normal temperature will go a long way towards ensuring that outcome, but people’s basics need to be met as a matter of morality for as long as this planet remains habitable.
I think giving all of that money up and watching all the benefits that came out of doing so would be the most incredible feeling in the universe! I would have so much fun building schools, and housing, and seeing kids eating good food, wearing decent clothes, becoming educated, and watching massive changes towards a greener, less polluting, smarter way of living happen all around me as a result of my giving up my massive wealth that, for me, was nothing more than a number that I could use to compare myself with other wealthy people! Beyond that, I always have what I need. I buy what I want, when I want, as often as I wish, but that number just keep getting bigger anyway!
If middle class people like me can still find a way to tithe and give money to charity every year, making less in a whole year than Jeff Bezos makes in one minute, then YOU MR. MONEYBAGS SHOULD BE ABLE TO FIND YOUR WAY TO LIVING ON $5 BILLION YEAR!
Which of you will be the first!?
