In defense (sort of) of billionaires

      Billionaires are, pretty deservedly, getting a bad rap these days. They are, rightfully, being accused of torching our government to satisfy their own insatiable greed. They are seen widely, and generally correctly, as predatory grifters using their financial power to steal from all the rest of us.

      And yes, of course, the whole capitalist system is unfair and there shouldn’t be any billionaires at all in a just world, in a fair society.

      But despite overwhelming evidence that they are mostly a bunch of avaricious vultures, I’ve come to say a few good words about a few billionaires—and how it’s best not to focus on the billionaire class too much, too exclusively, as many of us have been doing.

      Because when we repeatedly say we don’t want a government run by billionaires, it’s an easy pejorative. It’s a safe applause line, a hit at demonstrations and protests. But it’s reductive.

      FDR, for instance, was a wealthy patrician who by today's standards was probably a billionaire. He was from an elite family but used his powers in government to help those who needed help.

      JFK came from a fabulously wealthy family but he, too, cared about the rest of us and saw government as a powerful force for good.

      George Soros is a billionaire and so is Warren Buffett and I wouldn't lump them in with the crew currently in power, with the Trumps and Musks and their toadying brethren. There are others, like Bill Gates and MacKenzie Scott, who have long supported progressive causes. (And, by the way, a government run by "the workers" doesn't guarantee benevolence and justice either; Hitler and Mussolini both came from the working class.)

      Yes, many of those running or influencing the government are indeed those avaricious vultures, but I think when we emphasize that, when we stress that above all else, we are missing the point—and maybe obscuring the argument. The point is not who's running the government, but what those people—or any people—are doing. That is, how they are running the government.

      Instead of simple knee-jerk antipathy to the very wealthy, we should be, I think, focusing on the Trump administration's economically ruinous policies, their anti-Constitutional acts, their grift, their moral bankruptcy, their curtailment of basic rights, their illegalities and their work to benefit the wealthy at the expense of those less well-off.

      I think the anti-fascist movement, the “Hands-Off” movement, the save-our-democracy movement  would be more effective if it continues to point out the terrible, destructive things this administration is doing. We need to spotlight the damage this administration is causing, how all of us are being harmed, rather than simply using facile shorthand characterizations of who the people in power are.