Rich people like being rich. They like having more things than their neighbors, enjoy being important, and think that having expensive things is important. Ostentatious elites like to be seen going places and doing things. They enjoy being around other rich people to talk about how rich, or not rich, other people are. Rich people are featured in magazines and TV shows to let them show off how many things they have. They like to let people they don’t know, or have any desire to know, that they have “good taste”. They will patronize art dealers and decorators in the seldom-failing understanding that they will publicly praise them for their “good taste”. Some rich people live humbly. They enjoy having other people know that.
Such motivations boil down to vanity. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. Usually, showing off doesn’t hurt other people. But, it can.
Rich people are in a position to determine what candidates get through the primary election to get a Party’s nomination. The vainest of them enjoy doing that. Sometimes, they, themselves, will run for office. When they do, it’s called “public service”. They employ public relations people to make a point of having media praise them for their self-sacrifice. Many of us are so credulous that we take such claims seriously. “I like so-and-so. He’s a billionaire, but he cares about us.”
Some rich people like to leave big estates. The problems caused by rich, vain people who accumulate and pass on property becomes apparent over time. Gradually, they end up owning everything. In Scotland, 103 people own 30% of the country. If we read that sentence a few times, we are helped to get an idea of the enormity of the disparity. 103 people own 30% of Scotland. Remarkable. South of that egregiousness, all of England is 69% owned by .6% (less than 1%!) of the people.
This concentration of property in ever-fewer people gives excessive power to what becomes, over time, an aristocracy. Aristocratic power is mostly good for aristocrats, until guillotines are erected or gulags opened.
The problem that aristocracy brings to a nation is that aristocrats are expensive to maintain. When they manifest their vanity by destroying the poor, as do the wealthy supporters of organizations like Planned Parenthood, vanity turns into evil.
America’s aristocracy is not quite as visible as the 103 people owning 30% of Scotland, but it’s getting there. As more income flows upwards, there’s more hostility among the easily manipulated masses of voters. The more with which they’re left, the less likely is it that they’ll overthrow the aristocracy that oppresses and impoverishes them.
