A billionaire was on television this morning, and he’s concerned about our social fabric. He told us not to buy Christmas presents this year; he said we should donate to our public services instead. This was followed by a senator who thinks we ought to invest our $600 pandemic checks in the stock market after we pay off our debts. America’s billionaires vacuumed up another trillion dollars since the pandemic began. “Their wealth growth is so great,” says Frank Clemente, the executive director of Americans for Tax Fairness, “that they alone could provide a $3,000 stimulus payment to every man, woman, and child in the country, and still be richer than they were nine months ago.” How does this get unwound? The image of a billionaire on television worrying about civil unrest feels significant.
I remember making terrible small talk at an airport with a cheerful man from Houston or San Diego who invented the McGriddle. “We watched our customers roll up their pancakes and stuff them with syrup and bacon,” he said. “So we just gave them what they wanted.”
