In Contempt of Soulless Pigs

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Have you ever wondered why people as rich as Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, or even the vulgarian Trumps are so opposed to paying their share of taxes when doing so would not impair their obscene standard of living one iota.  They seem to feel that society should be run on the backs of the working class, and the rich should be left alone to enjoy their wealth as they see fit.  Taxes are not a major concern of the wealthy.  Yes, taxes are a necessary part of the world order, and they should be paid - just not by them.  The late hotelier, Leona Helmsley, a billionaire real estate mogul and friend of Donald Trump's who was known as the "Queen of Mean," summarized the insatiable greed of the rich and their aversion to paying taxes thusly, and with extreme arrogance:

"We don't pay taxes.  Only the little people pay taxes."

That was back at a time when there was still some sense of justice in American government, and in 1989 Ms. Helmsley was sentenced to 16 years in prison for tax evasion and ultimately served 21 months.  The presiding judge in the case ordered her to begin serving her sentence on April 15th - tax day!

Now, of course, it is much worse, and today's billionaires (the Epstein class) routinely find ways to not pay any taxes at all, and they often line their purses with government contracts which are ultimately funded by American workers.

Today marks the 117th anniversary of the birth of American novelist Nelson Algren, a writer who chronicled some of the seamier aspects of life on the mean streets of the United States.  Algren was born into a working class family in Detroit and had a keen understanding of his hard-scrabble roots.  His Wikipedia entry credits him with articulating the world of "drunks, pimps, prostitutes, freaks, drug addicts, prize fighters, corrupt politicians, and hoodlums."  Today, while reading an on-line article celebrating the birth of Nelson Algren, I came across a quote of his which, after careful reflection, I decided was the answer to the question of why the ultra-rich resist giving a hand up to those less fortunate that themselves.  Algren said:

"When we get more houses than we can live in, more cars than we can ride in, more food than we can eat ourselves, the only way of getting richer is by cutting off those who don't have enough."

Boom!  There, from Algren's 1956 novel, "A Walk on the Wild Side," is the answer.  The very rich constantly seek more, even though they don't need it, as a way of increasing the social and economic distance between themselves and the rest of us.  They are soulless pigs at the trough - and it will be a mighty cold day in hell before they share.  The more the rich can hold onto, the more the rest of us will be forced to spend.  The less the workers have in their pockets and bank accounts, the better the rich, pig oligarchs feel about their own situations in life.

Not every billionaire oligarch is a pig at the trough denying others the right of basic survival needs, but clearly most are.  There are a few philanthropists who try to break that mold.  One of those very good billionaires that I like to site in MacKenzie Scott, the "first wife" of Jeff Bezos.  MacKenzie helped in founding and growing Amazon.com, and when the couple divorced she did very well in the settlement.  Later while Jeff was busy renting out the city of Venice, Italy, for his wedding to a young trophy wife, MacKenzie had married a public school teacher was was busy writing very large checks to charities worldwide.  She understood that with big money comes big responsibility.  Warren Buffett and Melinda Gates understand that as well, but the concept was lost on certain senior members of the Trump family who stole money from a children's charity which they were running.

Perhaps we should not take it personally that the rich won't pay their fare share for the ride on Planet Earth.  Their consummate greed is just one more way of piling up wealth and increasing the gap between them and us.  It's as natural as famine and plague, and it is our duty to embrace it and to keep paying for the services on which society depends without complaint - or contempt - because our "betters" sure as hell aren't going to do it!