Who are the fortunate?
I hear a lot in the news about the fortunate and lucky wealthy people who have a responsibility to share their fortunes with the rest of us unfortunates. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, fortunate is described as “receiving some unexpected good”. So this would imply that wealthy people got that way by accident. I suppose that meant they went into business expecting to lose money and surprise, against every one’s expectations the company for some inexplicable reason turned a profit.Â
Now other than inheriting wealth, winning the lottery or the occasional person who stumbles onto something of great value, most wealth comes from starting a business, rising to the top of an existing business or pursuing a career based on a talent such as artist or some form of entertaining. Much of the time it is after many years of hard work, barely making ends meet, before the riches come. Henry Ford went bankrups five times before starting the Ford car company. I Just finished reading an autobiography by Steve Martin, the comedian, who went for for many lean years doing stand up comedy, before finally hitting it big.
I enjoy reading biographies of famous business people, mostly they are stories of years of struggle before finally being rewarded with wealth. I can think of very few who had a “lucky break”  that hadn’t put in years of effort before hand. The idea that people who worked hard to build their wealth are obligated to turn it over to those who didn’t is absurd. Most of the wealthy contribute huge portions of their wealth to charities consider Andrew Carnegie who gave away most of his wealth building libraries and Bill gates and Warren Buffet who have given tens of billions to charity.
I realize many officers in large corporations receive extravagant amounts of money while leading their company’s toward bankruptcy. I disagree with this and believe people should get paid according to their value, if the company’s fortunes increase they should share in it, if it decreases they should be held responsible and take a cut in pay.
Some people believe there is a finite amount of money in the world and if you have more you had to have taken it from someone else.  This idea creates wealth envy, the belief that  the reason I am poor is because some rich person stole my share of the worlds money. Most of the jobs created in this country are through small businesses, the owners of which constitute the majority of the so called wealthy. I am calling those who make over two hundred and fifty thousand dollars per year wealthy, as currently defined by our present administration.
Lets say we decide to raise taxes on those small business owners earning over two hundred and fifty thousand dollars per year, so that we can give the money to all those people who weren’t so “fortunate”. What do you think would happen? First off they wouldn’t be able to hire any new people or expand their business. they might even have to lay some people off causing higher unemployment which in turn would cause the need for more taxes.
If ultimately we took all the money from the wealthy and gave it to the poor we would all be poor and unemployed. Not a recipe for success.
The problem as I see it is, we no longer believe in the American dream, that through patience and dedication we can work our way to the top or at the least have a comfortable lifestyle. If someone believes they have no chance to succeed they never try. If you are convenced only those who are fortunate or know the right people or come from a certain segment of society get rich, then why even try, the deck is stacked against you.
The pioneers who founded this country didn’t expect any help, they just wanted an opportunity. In fact accepting charity was a disgrace and most would have rather starved than accept a hand out. How far have we traveled from those days. Now not only do we want a hand out but we want to forcibly take other’s money for ourselves.
Working hard to achieve success used to be concidered a virtue, it can be again. You just have to take responsibility for your current situation, don’t blame others, change your attitude, make a plan and follow through So rather than demonize the wealthy let’s try to emulate them and become successful enough we can donate to charities that really help those in need.