The Lottery

 Generally speaking I do not hold billionaires in high esteem. My working class background tends to keep me grounded in the notion that they are all bad people who made their money off the backs of folks like me. I have not aspired to live a life of opulent luxury, primarily because I have no real fix on exactly what that would be. I am one of those guys who could win the lottery and still show up for work the next day. 

If I played the lottery. I don't tend to waste my money on such nonsense. 

Okay. Now we have that out of the way, I'll continue with my exception: Warren Buffett. The world's cuddliest billionaire has probably managed a free pass in my world because many people believed he was related to Jimmy Buffett. He wasn't. They both made scads of cash, so it's not a really hard connection to make. Plus, Warren is known for being "a man of the people." He rides Harley Davidsons. Sure that probably has something to do with the fact that he loaned them three hundred million dollars during the financial crisis, but he didn't have to ride one. And Barack Obama invited him to the State of the Union Address back in 2012 to point out the inequity of the tax system as it stands. Warren brought his secretary along, since the point was illustrated by the fact that his secretary was paying more than twice the percentage of her fabulously wealthy boss. 

See? A fabulously wealthy man of the people. 

Sort of. 

Then there's this bit he wrote in 2015: “No conspiracy lies behind this depressing fact: The poor are most definitely not poor because the rich are rich. Nor are the rich undeserving. Most of them have contributed brilliant innovations or managerial expertise to America’s well-being.” Yes. The rich are rich because they have contribute brilliant innovations like those made by Elon Musk. Or Donald Jessica Trump. Or any of the sundry Kardashians. Hs advice for those of us who are on the outside looking in? “They should be willing to bet on America … They should just keep buying and buying and buying a little bit of America as they go along. And thirty or forty years from now, they will have a lot of money.” 

That is, after all, what Warren was doing when he tossed Harley Davidson that check for three hundred million. He was betting on America. And if you happen to be one of those forty-some percent of Americans who don't own stock, you really should be. That, after all, is how folks like Warren make their money. Not by taking a wrench to a motorcycle to make it run, but by pouring the check you got from turning that wrench into the speculation that the motorcycle will get sold along with many more like it and everyone will get rich. 

You might also be interested in buying a share in the Brooklyn Bridge or some swamp land down near Mar A Lago.