I Like Rich People

Some of you have already read this elsewhere, but I thought I'd post it here, too. I have a big work event tonight and have been out of town, so I don't have much else to say at the moment.

Today I just want to share a quick thought: I like rich people. I am not a rich person and frankly, given my profession, a music teacher, the odds are extremely small that I will ever be one (although, I would take it if it came along. But it probably won’t). Assuming that our economy doesn’t completely collapse and we don’t all end up living in either mud huts or gray cinder-block high-rises (circa East Germany in 1967), I will probably live and die in the lower portion of the middle-class and I have made my peace with that.

But still, I like rich people.

I wish that our culture and government weren’t becoming so anti-rich person. I like them. I think they are good. In fact, I think they are necessary.

Rich people, or at least people who make a good chunk of money (most of them are technically probably in the upper middle class), send their kids to the school at which I am employed. They want their children to be exposed to the arts, which is why my school employs me to teach these children music and theatre. Also, because I am an employee my children get to attend this school and get a first-rate education, even though we are not rich. My children are able to attend because the rich people pay a lot of money for tuition and a portion of all of their tuition goes to help pay for the cost of educating children who can't afford the full price of tuition. Beyond that, some rich people have donated money specifically to help poor people to attend the school. My children are not alone—there are a bunch of kids attending our school who, without the rich people, wouldn’t be able to be here. Some of them would be trapped in schools where their lives are physically in danger. But, because of the rich people, these kids have a chance out of their surroundings.

I like rich people because they tend to be generous, in my experience. Every year, at Christmas and at the end of the year I get gifts from them. Most of these gifts are gift cards and/or cash. I use these gift cards to go out to eat, to buy books and music, and do other things that I normally wouldn’t be able to do. This provides enjoyment for me, and it provides income for the people who work at those restaurants, bookstores, and so forth. They can then spend that income and this starts a wonderful chain that helps everyone out.

Also, some of these people decide that they would like their children to learn to sing or act. So, they pay me a fee to teach them, either though camps or private lessons. They also pay for their children to take piano lessons, dance lessons, martial arts lessons, horseback riding lessons, as well as paying to participate on various athletics teams. They pay coaches, tutors, and purchase equipment. Everyone of these people uses the money to buy things from someone else.

Now, I am just one person on the rich people’s financial radar. In addition to me, they pay for drycleaning, maid services, pool maintenance, home repairs, handyman services, catering and so on. Not to mention the clothes they buy, the gyms they go to, the hair styling they get. It goes on and on. And, I haven’t each mentioned charitable giving. The beauty of all this is that they do all this out of self-interest, without even trying to help people out. A lot of them do give substantial sums to charity. But even if they don’t share any of intentionally to be nice, they actually spread quite a bit of it around.

So, I think rich people are pretty great. They are already doing a lot. I think we should let them keep more of what they make so they can keep spending it. I would rather be able to work for them and earn my money than have the government take it from them and parcel it out to me. That is my preference for several reasons. First of all, I just think it’s the right thing from a moral perspective. But secondly, I don’t want to be dependent on the government to pay for my health care or education. I like working to earn it. It feels good. And, I don’t really trust them to do it right. But most of all, if you take that money away from the rich people and give it to poor people, won’t it eventually run out? I mean, it’s not a rapidly renewable resource, is it? It takes generations (usually) to accumulate wealth.

I remember when I was at college. It was cold and I had a thin, though adequate, coat. The president of the university, who was reputed to be quite wealthy, walked by me in a thick, long coat. He was walking to a campus eatery, probably to have a hot lunch. I had peanut butter and jelly. I was envious and I thought, “He ought to divide up his money and give it to everyone who goes to school so we can all have something nice.” Then it hit me how much my envy had clouded my thinking. If we were to do that—divide his money up—he would have to be fabulously, incredibly wealthy for it to make any difference at all in all of our lives. Most likely, it would affect him in a significantly bad way while not really making any substantive difference in our lives.

I remember the story of the goose that laid the golden egg. Remember the one where the goose laid a golden egg each day? Eventually, though, the people got greedy. They decided not to wait for the egg each day. They killed it and cut it open so they could get all the eggs out at once. That was great at the moment. But then the eggs stopped. For good. Isn’t that a little bit like what we are doing now?

Now, I know that some people who read this blog will agree with me because they already think this way. And, those of my dear friends who don’t agree with me will likely not change their minds when they read this. So I don’t expect anything to actually happen by posting this. But it feels good to say it.