John D Rockefeller
I think that rich people are sometimes portrayed in the media, schools, or government as being like Scrooge from the play”The Christmas Carol” written in 1843 by Charles Dickens. I contend that this is a falsehood.
First of all, Scrooge lived like a poor man. He loved money so much that he hardly spent anything even on himself. What good is having money if you don’t spend it to at least better your own life? Of course he was a fictional character, but if any person in real life treated his money like Scrooge, he would literally be considered crazy. The sane rich buy products and services which show they are wealthy. Even if they just spend on themselves, this supports the people who make a living from providing goods and services to rich people. How would people who build yachts or Porsches pay their own bills otherwise? And if you think about it, most businesses, at least in America, cater to people who have disposable income. This would be money left over from spending on necessities like food or lodging. The rich have more income to patronize these other businesses. As far as we know, Scrooge didn’t put his money in a bank or in the stock market. At least most of the rich today invest here. This allows other people to get loans for a home or to start other businesses.
Scrooge apparently didn’t pay his clerk Bob Cratchit a decent wage because of his greed. Why didn’t Bob say “See ya” and quit? That is what bothers me. But Scrooge had it made because the economy must have been bad. He could pay Cratchit low wages and know that he wouldn’t leave because there was no where else to go. Today in real life, if taxes are lowered on businesses as well as workers, and unnecessary regulations are removed, employers will have more money to hire more workers and pay higher wages. More entrepreneurs will start businesses because they believe they will make a profit and even become rich. Even if they want to be greedy and pay low wages, they will have to think twice because of competition for labor due to more jobs being available than workers.
Paying higher wages is good for everyone. Employers compete to get the best workers, and the workers have more disposable income to spend. Looking at Henry Ford’s life, the inventor of the automobile, by reading thehenryford.org website, he increased wages for his assembly line workers to $5.00 an hour, In the early 1900s this was twice the amount paid at most other jobs. This kept the most skilled employees working for him as well as allowing them to actually afford the cars they were making! Smart, huh? This was without a minimum wage mandated by the government!
When Scrooge was asked by men who were fundraising for the poor at Christmastime, his remarks went something like this: “Are there no prisons or workhouses’? “Aren’t there laws established to deal with the poor? I help to support these government solutions for poverty.” One of the men fundraising responded to Scrooge that many people can’t go to these establishments or would rather die. Obviously these government “programs” or laws didn’t alleviate poverty in this story, and neither do today’s efforts by the US government help the poor. Since President Johnson established program in the 1960s to eradicate poverty, the federal government has spent billions of tax payer money, but the number of poor people has mostly increased since.
Fortunately, Scrooge redeemed himself after having the fear of God put into him by the three spirits. He gave a presumably huge sum to the poor as well as a generous raise to Cratchit. In reality, wealthy people like Bill Gates have established charitable foundations to use their wealth to help those in need. In the book “The Myth of the Robber Barons” by Burton W. Folsom, JR., the author explains how John D. Rockefeller, the founder of Standard Oil, used his great wealth. By the time of his death at age 98 in 1937, Rockefeller had given away $500,000,000. This amount was more than any other person have given away up until then. Of course this amount would be worth much more now because of inflation. He built schools and churches and gave money towards higher education. He funded teams of scientists who found cures for yellow fever, meningitis, and hookworm. Plus his efforts to find more efficient ways to extract and refine oil drove down the cost to make it affordable to the common man.
Even though Scrooge changed into a generous giver of his wealth instead of a miser, I think that many people in our federal government who think they are the answer will always view Scrooge as a greedy, mean ,miser because he didn’t give more money to government instead.