Malefactors of Great Wealth
How much are your principles worth?
“Wealth tends to corrupt the mind and to nourish its love of power and to stimulate it to oppression. History proves this to be the spirit of opulence.”
—Gouveneur Morris, 1787
A personal note: This was a surprisingly difficult topic to write about. Its ubiquity means there are many examples to choose from — so many, in fact, that it becomes overwhelming.
I even considered abandoning it altogether. But ignoring reality doesn’t change reality. One of the principles of great leadership, as taught by former Ford CEO Alan Mulally is: “Expect the unexpected and expect to deal with it.”
The concern is that leaders are dumping empathy and humanity in exchange for riches. Principles are giving way to greed.
These are not new concepts to human nature, and in this essay, you’ll find the observations from the Old and New Testaments, Montaigne, Jefferson, Lincoln, Thoreau, Theodore Roosevelt, and a healthy dose of Lewis H. Lapham, whose crusade against the equestrian class of his upbringing was something of his life’s work.1
There are timeless and timely links below for further reading, along with a recommended book and documentary, should you have the time or inclination.
The 1980s were something. Power ties and power lunches that gave way to power grabs, where corporate raiders and hostile takeovers dominated the headlines, with executives like “Neutron Jack” Welch celebrated for their ruthless cuts to employee headcount.
The bottom line was the bottom line, as Gordon Gekko’s2 smooth intonations implored us to accept that “Greed is good,” and Americans dutifully worshipped at the temple of Mammon.
Greed as a character trait is not something that was generated in the factories of the 1980s (especially since leadership then was hard at work declaring war on labor unions3), nor something from the Gilded Age. Greed and power are vices that have been with us since humans first understood the concept of money.
And greed does seem to be good, given how richly its rewarded. The ROI of ethics and principles seems to be suffering from the law diminishing returns, slowly circling the drain toward obscurity.
Welcome Your Oligarch Overlords
I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but there seems to be an inordinate number of billionaires who are influencing life in America (and the world more broadly) at the moment.
I have nothing against capitalism; it is what has allowed the world to grow, prosper, and bring along the greatest number of people. But all too many people seem to have either chosen or resigned themselves to an oligarchy in what once was a proud democracy (okay, okay: a “democratic republic” for the pedants in the back).
While contemplating on this sad fact, I began to wonder just when we abandoned our principles for the promise of riches.
The Origins of Greed
This concept is documented as far back as the book of Genesis in the Bible, where we find Esau selling his birthright for a mess of pottage: he gives up his standing as the firstborn son in exchange for a bowl of lentil stew.4
It isn’t only our own principles we betray for money; the New Testament of the Bible also contains an instance of the betrayal of others — specifically one other — for a small sum:
“Then one of the twelve, called Judas Iscariot, went unto the chief priests, and said unto them, What will ye give me, and I will deliver him unto you? And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver. And from that time he sought opportunity to betray him.” — Matthew 26:14–16
Money and power go hand in hand.
The founders were not unaware of the influence of money in statehood. They studied history and appreciated human nature.
“Money, not morality, is the principle of commercial nations.”
— Thomas Jefferson, 1810
Thomas Jefferson read Montesquieu, who said that when finance is honored, the state is lost. Monarchies are destroyed by poverty, but traditionally, republics are brought down by luxury and excess.
There are those who naively think power-hungry billionaires are benefactors to society, that their wealth indicates some higher morality, since they don’t need more money. As if additional wealth accumulation plays any part in their decisions.
“The greatest crimes are caused by surfeit, not by want. Men do not become tyrants in order that they may not suffer cold.” — Aristotle, c. 375 B.C.
Aristotle knew that an abundance of wealth than lack of it is more likely to cause corruption, greed, and abuse. The wider the gap between the haves and have-nots always leads to a populace that supports and even welcomes tyranny. The wealth gap is a permission slip.
Observing the transformation of the Roman Republic into an empire, the historian Sallust attributed the wish for despotism to, among other causes:
“[U]nequal distribution of wealth, exorbitant veterans’ demands, de-population of the countryside, high unemployment of citizens, debt-ridden farmers, bread and circuses, costly military ventures, oppressive taxes for some, and a government controlled by wealth.”
The question is: what are our principles? What do we hold dear? What do we truly value?
Plato identified the problem with worshiping money: “When wealth and the wealthy are valued in the city, virtue and good men are less valued. What is valued is practiced. What is not valued, is not practiced.”5
Balancing wealth, power, and humanity requires practicing empathy — a virtue that is in short supply, particularly among the narcissistic billionaire class.
In an 1854 lecture titled “Life Without Principle,” Henry David Thoreau reflected on what he witnessed with the California Gold Rush in 1849, when hordes of speculators sought to strike gold in the vein of human greed that exposed itself in the spectacle, calling it “the greatest disgrace on mankind”:
“That so many are ready to live by luck, and so get the means of commanding the labor of others less lucky, without contributing any value to society! And that is called enterprise! I know of no more startling development of the immorality of trade, and all the common modes of getting a living.”6
Now, it’s perfectly reasonable to disagree with the utopian-minded Throreau and remind him that there is plenty of value unlocked in such enterprises. Jobs are created, goods are sold, communities are built. It’s what capitalism is all about.
Money allows us to accomplish our goals and to fulfill our needs in a way that no other single thing does, so it’s no surprise that we value it:
“When we consider how full of needs the human race is, how its whole existence is based upon them, it is not a matter for surprise that wealth is held in more sincere esteem, nay, in greater honor, than anything else in the world… Everything else can satisfy only one wish, one need: food is good only if you are hungry; wine, if you are able to enjoy it; drugs, if you are sick; fur for the winter; love for youth, and so on. These are all only relatively good. Money alone is absolutely good, because it is not only a concrete satisfaction of one need in particular; it is an abstract satisfaction of all.” — Arthur Schopenhauer, 1851
The problem arises when we go beyond valuing it and when those who accumulate the most wealth use it as a weapon, particularly against those who are the most vulnerable.
Consider the recent budget passed by the House that proposes cuts to programs and departments that affect the needy, children, veterans, and healthcare, all in favor of tax cuts, uninformed tariffs, and $5 million citizenship visas available to a small and questionable element of the global elite.
“It is the eternal struggle between these two principles — right and wrong — throughout the world. They are the two principles that have stood face to face from the beginning of time, and will ever continue to struggle. The one is the common right of humanity and the other the divine right of kings. It is the same principle in whatever shape it develops itself. It is the same spirit that says, "You work and toil and earn bread, and I’ll eat it." No matter in what shape it comes, whether from the mouth of a king who seeks to bestride the people of his own nation and live by the fruit of their labor, or from one race of men as an apology for enslaving another race, it is the same tyrannical principle.”
— Abraham Lincoln, 1858
Theodore Roosevelt, who gave a speech in 1907 (full link in the Timeless section below), is the inspiration for the title of this essay. He talked about a great financial disturbance and the need “to punish certain malefactors of great wealth… responsible for something of the trouble.” [Emphasis mine.]
He reminded his audience of the principles on which he stands:
“…[T]here will be no change in the policy we have steadily pursued, no let-up in the effort to secure the honest observance of the law; for I regard this contest as one to determine who shall rule this free country — the people through their governmental agents or a few ruthless and domineering men, whose wealth makes them peculiarly formidable, because they hide behind the breastworks of corporate organization…
In the man of great wealth who has earned his wealth honestly and uses it wisely we recognize a good citizen of the best type, worthy of all praise and respect. Business can only be done under modern conditions through corporations, and our purpose is heartily to favor the corporations that do well…”
Wealth, after all is just a tool. We can wield it in ways that help others or that help only ourselves and those like us.
If we’ve identified the principles that matter to us, the question remains: are we willing to stand by them?
I.
A known enemy of corruption and monopolies, Theodore Roosevelt had occasion to talk about his ideals for America on the occasion of laying of the cornerstone of the Pilgrim memorial monument in Provincetown, Massachusetts on August 20, 1907 (Theodore Roosevelt Center)
II.
“By the end of the 1970s democracy had come to be seen as a means of government gone soft in the head and weak in the knees, no match for unscrupulous Russians, incapable of securing domestic law and order, unable to disperse the barbarians (foreign and native born) at the gates of the gated real estate in Beverly Hills, Westchester County and Palm Beach. The various liberation movements still in progress no longer sought to right the wrongs of government. The political was personal, the personal political. Seized by the appetite for more—more entitlements, privileges and portrait busts—plaintiffs for both the haves and the have-nots agitated for a lifestyle, not a principle.” From the essay America and the Rise of the Stupefied Plutocrat from 2018. (LitHub)
III.
In the last gilded age, each titan owned and controlled pretty much one major industry. Rockefeller may have had the monopoly in oil but Carnegie dominated steel, Vanderbilt had shipping and the railroads, and JP Morgan was the banker. Challenging each other to cage fights, building apocalypse bunkers – the behavior of today’s mega-moguls is becoming increasingly outlandish and imperial. (The Guardian)
I.
As 25% tariffs are expected to hit our neighboring allies next week, we have a president who neither studied nor understands history, particularly the era of the Gilded Age: “We were the richest relatively – think of this – from 1870 to 1913. That was our richest. Because we collected tariffs ... we had so much wealth.” (Threads)
II.
Nobel Prize-winning economics Paul Krugman has a quick video explaining why billionaires shouldn’t run our government (Instagram)
III.
Everything you wanted to know about wealth and power from Northwestern professor and oligarchy expert Jeffrey Winters. He says he knows how to get billionaires to jump off the Forbes list of richest Americans. (Inequiality.org)
Originally published in 1988 and reissued in 2018, Lewis H. Lapham’s Money and Class in America (Amazon | Bookshop.org) is a is a caustic and often hilarious portrait of a segment of the American population who, in the 30 years since the book was originally written, have become only further removed―both in terms of wealth and social awareness ― from everyone else.
The American Ruling Class is a 2005 dramatic documentary film written by Lewis H. Lapham and directed by John Kirby that explores our country’s most taboo topic: class, power and privilege in our nominally democratic republic. (YouTube)
There’s so much to learn,
See our tribute to Lapham in “A World In Time,” July 31, 2024
Gordon Gekko is a character portrayed by Michael Douglas in the 1987 film Wall Street.
“Their plan was to declare war on labor unions so wages could slide back down again, end free college across the nation so students would live in fear rather than be willing to protest, and increase the penalties Nixon had already put on drugs so they could use those laws against their scapegoats, particularly the hippy antiwar protesters and Black people demanding an end to police killings. They also wanted to outlaw abortion, to put women “back in their place.”” Thom Hartmann, The Hartmann Report, Jan. 31, 2025
A mess of pottage is something immediately attractive but of little value taken foolishly and carelessly in exchange for something more distant and perhaps less tangible but immensely more valuable.
Lewis Lapham quoting Plato in this interview “Why Is the Pursuit of Money Such an American Obsession?” Current Affairs December 2021
Henry David Thoreau: “Life Without Principle,” The Atlantic, October 1863
Welcome as always, Mr Monty.