The Very Rich Are Different

Some thoughts on Labor Day

Poverty and Wealth by William Powell Frith, 1888 (public domain - Wikimedia Commons)

“The workers are the saviors of society, the redeemers of the race.” — Eugene V. Debs, 1905

There’s a divide in this country.

More than the political or ideological divides that provide the waterpower to mill the grist of outrage each day.

It’s a division over wealth.

The concept is nothing new; I remember my middle-class parents lamenting the same concept for years, complaining that “the rich get richer.”

Seneca, tutor and advisor to Nero for many years, grew in influence until he was the second most wealthy Roman of his time; he was roundly criticized for not living in a way consistent with his Stoic ideals.

And so we arrive at present-day, mired in frustrations as the economy attempts to approach a recognizable cadence: fast food drive-through windows with hand-made signs beseeching 14- and 15-year-old help; customer service hold times with airlines that last longer than transcontinental flights; and…