Monday, July 23, 2007

Filthy Lucre

During my time in NYC I touched elbows (didn't have a chance to rub) with some wealthy art patrons--old money, new money, soon to inherit money--and it reinforced what Hemingway said in reaction to Fitzgerald's famous, "The rich are different from you and me." Hemingway said, "Yes, they have more money." There are other differences, of course, but they all flow from the green spring. Maybe the favorite myth in American life is the Horatio Alger tale of rags to riches through hard work, virtue, and savvy. Anyone who believes those ingredients make success inevitable is what P.T. Barnum would call a "sucker," but there's more than one born every minute, there are hundreds, or even thousands.

Does any human being have a right to millions or billions of dollars when a majority of the world's inhabitants never have the opportunity to acquire even a comfortable living? Does Bill Gates deserve more money than, say Albert Einstein? Does the U.S. have the right to consume 70 percent of the world's energy? Does might make right?

What a mad, cringing old world we live in.

One final note: Will work for diapers