The Idiot Kings of Late-Stage Capitalism

What does rich beyond your wildest dreams mean to you?

As I began my career while collecting shopping carts in a vast parking lot, I used to dream of owning a big house and plenty of land. As I gained experience in life (and while living in Southern California, where the U.S. Constitution was misinterpreted to mean “one person, one car” and the mantra of most drivers was “We’re not happy until you’re not happy”), I decided, maybe a penthouse apartment in the city would be a better dream -no need for a car, no sprawling acres of land to mow (through sneezing and hay fever).

Walk a couple of blocks to work. Walk to the theater. Take mass transit to the beach or the baseball game.

As reality established itself the house and land under an expansive sky became life in the city, not necessarily in an exclusive penthouse apartment with a sweeping skyline view.

The dream was walking to work, however having a balcony overlooking a busy bumper-to-bumper freeway where I could enjoy a morning coffee, a fresh orange juice (no one wants scurvy), read the newspaper, and occasionally wave at people sitting in traffic on their way to work.

Later in life, I learned there is a “deep secret” about money that is intentionally obscured and remains hidden to all except those who study economics (thank you John Kenneth Galbraith) and/or have accumulated significant wealth. Although some may gather at the steps of a capitol building and yell “FREEDOM!” -presumably from “big nanny government regulation and overreach” that comes with masking/public health, environmental protections, food safety inspection, worker protections, or even telling pilots where they can fly and land their planes, or all the above and more. Real freedom isn’t about the ability to buy packaged foods with E. coli or rat droppings.

Real freedom in our Darwinistic economic system is freedom from financial worry.

The ability to wake up each day and be able to direct and invest your time in any way that you want. During my journey through life, it was common to think you might spend your first 17-20 years (or more) in school, and then embark on a career that spans 40-50 years. You budget carefully and afford an apartment and car. You get promoted, you save money, and buy your first house. You get married, you have kids, you go on a vacation once a year, and then eventually retire, go fishing, or hang out on the porch and play checkers with the grandkids and tell them stories about the olden days. If you were lucky, based on average life expectancy you lived several years after retirement and then reached your expiration date.

Occasionally there would be an exception. Someone hit it “out of the park” on a stock initial public offering (IPO). Someone inherited a ton of money from Aunt Perle or Grandma Helen. Someone won the lottery. Diana authored a book and sold a gazillion copies and movie options. Diallo invented something that led to the formation of a large company or even an entire industry and then bought an island. Instead of a handful of elder years, they were able to depart from “the rat race” and do what they wanted. They were the exceptions to the system and were free. This is real freedom.

Some wealth is earned. Some wealth is just given.

In the landmark (and horribly wrong) “Citizens United” decision the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that “money is speech”.

The reality is that at a certain accumulated amount or more, money is freedom. And when it is so vast it transcends a lifetime of freedom for yourself -a desire to accumulate even more money by undermining societal protections and subverting government to serve yourself is pure greed and avarice.

I’ve written previously about the distinction of wealth that is earned versus wealth transfers. I admire the rare individual who has earned wealth. It has generally been earned through innovation, risk, ambition, intelligence, and timing. People who experienced their parent(s) working, budgeting, and saving. Then experience work and living paycheck to paycheck on their own. They have a deeper appreciation and understanding of life under our economic system.

When wealth is simply handed to someone who has zero experience or understanding of what a budget is, what living paycheck to paycheck is like, and doesn’t understand why they have to “save up” for a down payment on a house or car -they are going to have a very different perspective of life than you or I (regardless of your political view of the world). And they are suddenly handed immense power.

Their view of government radically differs from ours. Government regulations and laws constrain them instead of allowing them to hoard even more. They do not want you to question why someone is just able to have a mountain of wealth handed to them. They will not come right out and tell you they want you to be simple uneducated obedient hyper-consumers. Instead, they will seek to destroy public education. From their perspective, “Why should I pay taxes into a system that will cause people to question why the system is rigged such that dramatic wealth inequality exists?” They don’t want you asking “Why should I spend most of my lifetime working for a couple of weeks of ‘freedom’ each year until I’m old, tired, and used-up by a system that produces human garbage like Trump, Musk, Vance, and others?”

They will rail against “wokeness”. They will rail against teaching actual history. They know the less educated you are, the more fearful you are, and the easier it is to manipulate and control you to the point you are voting against self-interest and your future.

Weakening or destroying agencies like the Department of Education, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Internal Revenue Service is not about saving YOUR tax dollars. It is all about greed, hoarding wealth, and perpetuating a predatory and rigged game tilted toward the extreme concentration of authoritarian power.

The fundamental role of U.S. Government is to help create societal fairness and national security. The criminal-elect and his lowlife team of corrupt incompetents are here to destroy the fragile guardrails that were left after Reagan and multiple generations of post-Reagan wealth concentration and media consolidation. Do you want food safe from E. coli? Hire your own food taster. Want clean, good tasting water? Buy it at our store!

When Reagan joked that the nine most terrifying words in the English language are: “I’m with the government, and I’m here to help.” -he was not laughing with you, HE WAS LAUGHING AT YOU! (unless you were or are a billionaire).

Because if you want to see absolute terror on the face of those who have hoarded generational wealth it will be a President and Congress who state “We will form a meaningful democracy and fair economy by WHATEVER MEANS NECESSARY”.