This article pretty much sums up why America elected Donald Trump, and why American ideology is a cancer: being poor is a sickness, and every single rich person ever magically became rich because they’re geniuses and should be congratulated constantly for being so awesome.

  1. You cited Faulkner. He was born into power (family owned railroads). White male.
  2. You cited Buffet. He was born into power (father was a US congressman). White male.
  3. You cited Gates. He was born into power (family was lawyers and bankers). White male.
  4. You cited Robert G. Allen. Guess what? He was also born into wealth. White male.
  5. You cited a 2nd generation Rotshchild — as in, the son of the most influential financier in world history. White male.
  6. You cited Robert Greene, a failed screenwriter who decided to emulate megalomaniacs throughout history, a modern-day Machiavelli who most people with a conscious think of as a snake. But hey, he’s rich! Coincidentally, also a white male.

I think I’ve made my point. And I don’t think you’re a bad person, or that you intended to make your article as myopic and cringe-worthy as it actually is. But you took a random example of a poor person on welfare (you made a point to specify the welfare part. I wonder why …) to make a sweeping judgment of all poor people in America. In two sentences, you made it clear that wealth is a choice, and that the choice is “Be Rich” vs. “Be Poor.” It’s not a question of background, or family, or opportunities, or education. Nope. It’s all about the amazing intellect, personalities, and sheer awesomeness that rich people exhibit. And if poor people could just get a little more serious, well there’s enough wealth for everyone! (Just look at wealth distribution throughout the world, it’s literally a pyramid scheme).

You referred to poor people as “leeches.” That’s called dehumanization. And people wonder why America has a billionaire narcissist jackass for president, who, coincidentally, was also born into wealth (big surprise: he’s also a white male).

This article isn’t about money, it’s about power. And it’s about the people who hold power trying as hard as they can to maintain it, by insisting that they earned it instead of took it from everyone else down the ladder. This only furthers the idolization of financial wealth as an end in itself, instead of what anyone who’s humble and rich will actually tell you: saying the point of life = GET RICH! is a distinctly American poverty of ambition. But it sells, and gets a lot of likes on Medium. Because everyone wants to be powerful.

Samuél L. Barrantes

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Writing novels + music in Paris: Slim and The Beast