Yeah, obviously this is a problem, if you care about bigger picture “society as a whole” (which seems increasingly like a mug’s game, for the exact reasons laid out in these articles.)
But admit it. This sounds awesome:
“The only time that I use the state,” one financier worth an estimated £500 million confided in me recently, “is when my driver drives on public roads from the City to my country estate. I don’t like it, but I can’t help it.”
That’s my goal too. I wish I was that guy.
If he, indeed, hasn’t paid taxes in XYZ years, and his goal is to “use the State” as little as possible…
So? That sounds like pretty sound rudimentary morality math.
The trouble is, this guy got to this point at my (involuntary) expense, i.e., bailouts. (But they were rich before these bailouts too, no?)
Otherwise, his accomplishments are not de facto “bad.”
These people rigged the system so they could benefit from it a thousand fold.
Doesn’t that just mean that, frankly, they were smarter than me and worked harder?
Shouldn’t “we” have fought harder against bearing the tax burden while they paid nothing, and rebelled against all the hundreds of little things that got us to this point?
No, we were too busy buying lottery tickets and watching college football while these people were working.
Yes, their “work” in many cases was utterly nefarious.
What did we do about it?
We happily handed out money to Bernie Madoff and his legal equivalents, because we were as greedy and selfish as they were.
If the current system was calibrated just about 25% more on merit, I’d have even less to complain about.
Yes, the rich and influential marry each other and create incestuous networks (shocka!!) I’m forever railing against the Canadian genetic lottery media/political complex. That’s because my resume, on its face, is more impressive than, say, Justin Trudeau’s, but he gets to be Justin Trudeau.
However, if he was Justin Trudeau and a frickin’ genius, I’d be jealous but obliged to grudgingly respect him.
Murray’s analysis falters when he claims that when elites intermarry, they naturally spawn the smartest offspring. This is disproved by even the briefest scan of the cultural landscape.
How can we complain about these elites doing what they do, when we’d do the same thing if we were them?
Why else do you get rich, except so you don’t have to rub up against horrible ignorant poor people anymore?
Since the first day of kindergarten, the phrase “I need to get the HELL out of here” or its incoherent, 5-year-old girl equivalent has been sounding in my brain like a car alarm.
Part of Charles Murray’s solution seems to be:
“Hey, rich people — start putting your kids in public schools so their superiority can rub off on the plebes.”
That will never happen. It goes against human nature (something conservatives are supposed to be experts on.)
I’m a huge fan of Charles Murray.
But:
Where did his kids go to school?
