Does Wealth Determine Value?

While I ponder and worry about the fate of our countrymen and countrywomen after the snow storm, especially the poor, the homeless, the powerless, I turn to the CNN website for updates.  Once there I browse the news, click buttons on topics of interest, and catch up with events.  I did not know there was a controversy surrounding our Olympic athletes’ uniforms.  I did not know the Japanese have developed a bra that only un-hooks if the wearer is in love.  I did not know the earth swallowed historic Corvettes.  These and other buttons lead me to articles of interest and I know I am better prepared to play “Wait, Wait Don’t Tell Me”, the hysterical NPR weekly news quiz show.  I browse and click again.

Billionaire Tom Peters suggested, perhaps tongue in cheek, that the wealthy should get more votes than other people.  He said if you pay a million dollars in taxes you should get a million votes.  He further said that if you do not pay taxes you should not be allowed to vote.

Clicking another button I read that the top 1% of income earners is mad as hell.  They feel like they are being persecuted.  They feel like they will be asked to pay more in taxes.  They feel like there is a conspiratorial war against them that may harvest more money from their personal wealth for public coffers.  Meanwhile, they continue to do very well and the gap between what they earn and the rest of us earn grows annually.

I click another button and learn that the billionaire Koch brothers are pouring money into the races where it appears Democrats have a chance to unseat Republicans.

I click another button and learn that Bill Gates continues to subscribe to the notion of alternative choices to public schools and continues to fund those schools of choice despite the fact he is not an educator and lacks a college degree.  He is just rich.

I am at first outraged.  I rage.  I throw crochet hook, doily and yarn across the room.  I swear.  (Yes, little old ladies may swear when they are alone and not in the company of others.  The words chosen, however, must be suitable, applicable words and not typical generic street cussing.  Typically only “hells” and “damns” are appropriate.)  While I am worried about poor folks under a bridge, families shivering in the cold without electricity, and folks imprisoned in their vehicles these wealthy men are worrying about how to preserve their wealth and how to use their wealth to impact public policy. 

Taking a deep breath it comes to me that this is absolutely nothing new.  Despite thousands of years of human civilization and an amazing accumulation of technology and knowledge, we remain subject to the most banal of human wants, wishes and needs.  The rich do not want to share.  The rich do not think they should share.  The rich perceive themselves as superior human beings.  The rich believe they should make the rules by which all others play.  The rich do not like Democracy and yearn for a ruling aristocracy.  The billionaires of today are no different than feudal lords.  Other humans exist only to serve their will and meet their needs.  They should rule because they have more value than other humans because they have more money than other humans.  Wealth equals human value.

I totally disagree.

Harsh?  I do not think so.  I believe the human condition is capable of evolving.  I believe we can and ought to pursue more lofty goals than promoting the accumulation of wealth by a few at the expense of the many.  I believe some of our most powerful myths, beliefs, legends and folk lore have depicted this evolution to a higher plane:  The Midas Touch, the Emperor’s New Clothes, the Miser, the Goose with the Golden Eggs, the Rich Young Ruler, the Camel Through the Eye of the Needle, the Widow’s Offering, the Good Samaritan, and on and on.  Humans who serve others, especially those less fortunate, are honored and valued.  Humans who are self-serving, greedy and misers are despicable and not to be honored or valued.

In other words, the billionaires have it backwards.  When it comes to public policy such men should have less voice than others while they promote the accumulation and protection of their own wealth.  Simply because they have the wherewithal to implement their will does not make them right, superior, better, or of higher value than the poorest of the poor.  In fact, our morality plays imply just the opposite.

Sadly, the Peters, Koch brothers, Gates, Broad, etc. do not get this.  They do not want to get this.  Sadder is the fact that there are millionaires in the Senate and House who seek to protect the billionaires.  Beyond sad to the point of tragedy are the middle class, blue collar, working poor who have bought into the notion that wealth determines value. 

Not I. 

As human beings we are of equal value.  We are created equal.  Rich and poor; Red, Yellow, Black and White; God does not make junk.  Our mission is to help the poor and the needy.  It is not to protect the wealthy and empower them further.  That is why I am an educator.

 
And when seeing first hand those of deep needs and daily suffering I am humbled knowing that there but for the grace of God go I.