Get as rich as you want. Just do it fairly...

From John Sykes

Michael Young in his 1958 book, The Rise of the Meritocracy:

If the rich and powerful were encouraged by the general culture to believe that they fully deserved all they had, how arrogant they could become, and if they were convinced it was all for the common good, how ruthless in pursuing their own advantage. Power corrupts, and therefore one of the secrets of a good society is that power should always be open to criticism. A good society should provide sinew for revolt as well as for power. 

But authority cannot be humbled unless ordinary people, however much they have been rejected by the educational system, have the confidence to assert themselves against the mighty. If they think themselves inferior, if they think they deserve on merit to have less worldly goods and less worldly power than a select minority, they can be damaged in their own self-esteem, and generally demoralized. 

Even if it could be demonstrated that ordinary people had less native ability than those selected for high position, that would not mean that they deserved to get less. Being a member of the “lucky sperm club” confers no moral right or advantage. What one is born with, or without, is not of one’s own doing.

Folks, populism, the political doctrine that supports the rights and powers of the common people in their struggle with the privileged elite, is surging in this country, in our politics, and among our conservatives. I believe deservedly so.

I would not believe so if we had a level playing field. But crony capitalism is rampant as it so greatly profits our Ruling Class, our Meritocracy, our Elitists. Our corporations increasingly use politics to protect their fiefdoms, to exclude small businesses from the American dream, to regulate trade and free markets, to control labor. Their access to almost unlimited capital, much of it derived from taxation of We-the-People, a completely private and secretive Fed, and market controls drastically tilt the playing field.

This must stop. Abraham Lincoln said it best about me and about right-thinking capitalist patriots:

These men ask for just the same thing, fairness, and fairness only. This, so far as in my power, they, and all others, shall have.

So be it! Get as rich as you want. Just do it fairly.