John Engleman: Most whites like and admire rich people. Many whites think hard work and Republican economic policies will make them rich before they die. I am a white person who lacks those feelings and beliefs.
Nevertheless, I recognize that modern civilization requires brilliant people to occupy leading positions. I would not be able to manage a corporation. I would not be able to design a space vehicle capable to taking humans to Mars.
How can we solve this conundrum? I am not able to do that either. My inclinations are to raise taxes on the rich. Nevertheless, I suspect that I need their expertise more than they need anything I can do.
In “A Farewell to Alms: a Brief Economic History of the World,” Gregory Clark maintained that from approximately 1200 to 1800 most people in England – he had better records for England, but this was probably true of the rest of the civilized world – worked longer than their paleolithic ancestors had eleven thousand years earlier and ate less well. While this was happening a small elite lived much better than their paleolithic ancestors had eleven thousand years previously. .
Nevertheless, the society in which the hard working poor lived supported many more of them than a paleolithic society would have. This was because of the management of the small elite. Without that management the vast majority of the hard working poor people would have soon died from starvation and violence.
This love of the rich and worship of rich people seems unique to the US. Whites in Europe do not love the rich or worship them at all. Whites in Russia hate the rich and probably want to kill them. I can’t think of one European country that loves and worships the rich as much as we do in the US. Can you?
Canadians do not love and worship the rich that I am aware of. Nor do Australians or New Zealanders.
Therefore it is not correct to say Whites love and worship the rich as this is only an American aberration.
