Friends and Readers,
A thought experiment.
Imagine babies, born into wealth.
Children who will never want for anything. Who will never have to work at a job they hate just to keep food on the table.
They will live in comfortable surroundings their whole life.
They will always have enough to eat.
They will always have good medical treatment available.
They will get a good education.
And, most importantly, they will have the kind of security which allows them to focus on becoming whatever they are willing to put in the work to become.
They will be able to contribute their skills to making the world a better place if they choose.
And—for the purposes of this thought experiment—stop there.
Forget, for the moment, about all the income inequality in our world, about any of the downsides of concentrated power, and about any questions concerning exactly where these babies’ parents got their money.
Concentrate instead on their children’s lives—on the good they can do as they grow up, on the benefits they have, on the pleasantness and happiness they will experience.
And notice that there is absolutely nothing wrong with that, in itself—that it is absolutely, in itself, all very good.
Even the most diehard liberal among us can see that.
Even the most diehard conservative would agree.
We would all like for our babies to be born into that kind of life—to have all of the resources they need to be healthy and happy, and all the freedom they need to contribute to the health and happiness of others.
So what did those rich babies do to deserve this? To earn it?
Nothing.
They got born, of course, but even that wasn’t their decision—they never decided to get born, let alone to be born rich.
They did nothing to deserve all that, and shouldn’t have had to.
So why is it that all those other babies in the world don’t get to live this way?
Because, if you think about it, it wouldn’t take billions.
The benefits a billionaire’s child experiences—especially the most important ones like enough food to eat, a safe place to live, a good education, and good healthcare—don’t cost billions per child. All of those things are the tiniest of fractions of a billionaire’s budget.
There are all kinds of arguments justifying a billionaire’s right to wealth.
Mostly they involve the claim that the billionaire earned it.
But the billionaire’s child didn’t earn it, anymore that a poor person’s child.
Or, to turn that around, the poor person’s child deserves it just as much as the billionaire’s child.
And wouldn’t we all be much better off if we figured out how to give every child the same chances to contribute to a better world that a rich kid has?
As I read this I also think about the parents who work very hard, often at jobs that pay well but are otherwise unrewarding, just to get their kids CLOSE to this ideal. There are so many parents out there giving their all and making sacrifices so that their kids can get even one of the advantages you list.
Not too long ago it was a lot easier for someone working a blue collar job, 40 hours a week, to buy a house, afford one parent to stay at home with the kids, send those kids to a great school, and eventually retire with a pension. Not too long ago we were close to this ideal in this country.
Then again, it wasn't that long ago where $1B made you the richest person in the world, and $1B was considered an obscene amount of money. (BTW, it still is.)