This is a sentiment I certainly share. But it's unrealistic. The reason the enemies of liberty won't leave is because all of the money and power are here. This is where it's "at." We all want and need this golden goose. It's just that some want to take or get rather than earn the money and power available here. It goes back to greed- the desire for the unearned. This is the desire that drives people to buy lottery tickets. It also happens to be behind the idea that businessmen and CEOs are just corporate fatcats with golden parachutes, etc. If your underlying supposition is that wealth is a matter of luck, this leads you to believe that those who have it didn't earn it; they were just in the right place at the right time and stumbled backwards into a huge salary. If that's what you think, no wonder you have no more respect for those who have earned wealth than you do for a lottery winner. Wealth is one of the only objective measures of value creation. "Potential" is nothing until it's realized. It's true that some people inherit money or a large company. But that's the exception, not the rule (read "The Millionaire Next Door.") It is the height of ignorance to armchair quarterback these major CEOs and owners of big corporations and oil magnates. Look, this is America. If these guys did nothing to earn what they have and it's so easy to do what they do, why haven't you done it? In America, your opportunity is staring you right in the face. Mom used to say you couldn't judge a man until you walked a mile in his moccasins. Well, get walking!
The other thing that occurs to me is in this vein of earned vs. unearned wealth has to do with actors, pop stars and professional athletes. By way of disclaimer, I'm against legislating lower salaries for these people.
To start a company and see it through to profitability takes years of toil, disappointment, failure, loss of money, time and more. There is growth that takes place in an individual who undertakes this path. In this way, he grows into his money.
Francisco D'anconia said, "A man can never be smaller than his money." With that in mind, and in full knowledge that I tread precariously on the thin ice of contradicting myself, I submit that actors et al do not earn what they have in the same way a businessman does. The evidence for this is the crime committing, drugs taking, etc. lifestyle of this odd group of people. It's ironic that most of us probably don't approve of this lifestyle, yet we financially support it.
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