We live in a period where it is fashionable to resent and trash successful people. This resentment often does not extend to the most useless people amongst us who have obtained fame and fortune for doing very little, like social media influencers and rappers: two lines of work that repeatedly warp the minds of impressionable youth. Instead, the animosity is reserved for the business owners and the entrepreneurs. These are the people allegedly exploiting us middle-class folk, keeping us down and ‘gouging’ us with high prices, according to members of the left. Really, this demonization isn’t all that new. John D. Rockefeller has long been painted as a rotten oil tycoon when, in fact, his innovations led to dramatically lower oil prices for consumers.
One of the popular claims about the wealthy is that most did not earn their money. Instead, their money supposedly came from being born into wealthy families nurtured by an evil capitalist society that helps them preserve their wealth. You hear this all over. Whether it be politicians or the media, this is the narrative. Sen. Bernie Sanders, for example, claimed at the Democratic National Convention this year that the economy only works for “the billionaire class.”
This sort of rhetoric is reminiscent of the fictional character Gordon Gekko from the movie “Wall Street,” who claimed that “two-thirds” of billionaire wealth “comes from inheritance,” and that these sorts of people “create nothing.” This antagonistic concept of top earners is pervasive. Such bitter claims frequently overlook the enormous global progress that has resulted from risk-taking entrepreneurs. Many people would be shocked to know that most of the world’s billionaires did not inherit their wealth.
According to Forbes, 72% of the world’s billionaires are self-made. They made their money largely through innovation in various industries. Moreover, their work is a net good for the rest of society. People have greater access to speedy transportation. They have more efficient modes of communication. According to a 2020 EIA study, 88% of U.S. households have air conditioning compared to a little over half a century ago when few households had such a privilege. These things are all the result of private businesses operating in the market.
But that does not stop slippery politicians from publicly attacking them, as evidenced by Sanders’ comments. Other notable politicians parrot the same nonsense. Vice President Kamala Harris, in her bid for the presidency, has proposed raising the top capital gains tax rate to a whopping 28%, with a proposal to tax unrealized gains. This follows the never-ending calls for the “rich” to pay their “fair share,” which typically just means paying more than they are already paying instead of some fixed amount considered fair. Such a policy would snap much of the investment in American business from existence ‘Thanos-style’.
A way to make matters worse for yourself if you belong to the entrepreneur class is to oppose the left’s broader narrative. A man who is presently on the receiving end of this style of persecution is the CEO of Tesla Motors and SpaceX, Elon Musk. A recent request for SpaceX to carry out more launches in California was met with grossly unfair opposition. The California Coastal Commission rejected the request, with commission members citing Musk’s private political views as a chief factor. One problem, according to a commission member, is that Musk has “aggressively injected himself into the presidential race.”
How dare someone support somebody for president! They must be stopped from launching spaceships into space! Fie! Or maybe the two things have absolutely nothing to do with one another.
Musk has expanded the electric vehicle market through ingenious ways. He has expanded space exploration. He has engaged in numerous philanthropic efforts, but not even this was enough to save him from being targeted. After all, Musk has championed inviolable free speech. He took over Twitter and transformed it into X, a platform of open discourse. He has criticized the social media censorship of conservatives. And, his most unforgivable sin on top of being a billionaire is endorsing former President Donald Trump.
Billionaires are not victims. They are going to be just fine. But if the hostility towards entrepreneurs and investors continues to increase, there will not be nearly as much innovation. There will not be as many new job opportunities available. There will not be as many breakthroughs in the tech industry. Nor will there be in the transportation industry, or the health industry or countless others. This will have terrible repercussions for the average man and woman. So, what might seem like a virtuous crusade to combat corporate greed may be a mistaken campaign to curb American progress.
