SINGER: Reflections on the super-rich

How does someone like me keep up with the super-rich? Given that I’m no expert in business or sociology. Also that I have enough trouble staying abreast of domestic or international politics when I sometimes proffer my paltry insights re those complex domains. The ensuing reflections on very affluent types got triggered when I read about the demise of Mike Lynch’s swanky yacht anchored off the coast of Sicily, and the loss of this tech titan’s life, along with his daughter’s, and several others, including the lawyer who’d successfully defended him on lingering fraud charges.

Was the terrible accident caused by a maritime tornado, now more frequent in the Mediterranean? Or did the tall, weighty mast (only Jeff Bezos’ outdoing Lynch’s) play a role? Did it occur due to the yacht taking on water and leading to a power failure, simply because doors, hatches, etc. weren’t properly closed? Was there foul play involved? Anyway, a sad story, indeed, though nothing rivaling Israel and Gaza, Ukraine, etc. But it does lead me to some wider reflections.



Firstly, on how the super-rich get ever more demonized these days, not least by hypocritical Dems, who promised they’d only raise taxes on the biggies, and in the process, somehow benefit the “middle class.” Which is questionable. Because one result would be enhanced inflation, i.

e., higher prices for the average consumer, plus fewer hires and less innovation. Hypocrites on board with this platform included the Bidens, Clintons, and Obamas, all très rich themselves, and far more than should be the case for non-business “crusaders.

” One could of course throw in that “Animal Farm” windbag, Bernie S., who’s also done well financially. Not to mention Mr.

Soros. Sure types like Donald Trump have big money, too. But he and his ilk don’t knock it nearly as much as these two-faced Dems.

Think of the moment at the latters’ convention when Sanders saw fit to critique the billionaires, then gave way on the podium to ...

J.P. Pritzker, one himself, benefiting hugely from the Hyatt fortune his family had amassed.

We could also mention another hypocrite named John Kerry, the climate crusader flying all over the place in style, and “emitting” in the process; but even more, possessing with his wife (a Heinz heiress), among other abodes and goodies, an expensive spread on Nantucket. Which suddenly looked worse when those stupid wind gizmos in the sea, some as high as skyscrapers, tarnished the Kerrys’ view: yes, these “clean-energy” horrors no one near them actually likes. Even worse occurred when one of those huge blades broke off into the ocean, and bits littered the water, screwing up the fishing industry (fish stocks already depleted because they can’t stand these gizmos, either, i.

e., the racket they make); and then there’s the poor whales, and so much else a very rich “environmentalist” ought to care about. The upshot? Kerry sold his and his wife’s luxurious Nantucket digs for 17.

5 mill, migrating to Martha’s Vineyard, where presumably, those wind-power monstrosities haven’t yet ruined life for the affluent types roosting there. Virtually all of ‘em charter members of the NIMBY club (i.e.

, “Not in My Back Yard”). Amply demonstrated, too, when Vineyardites wouldn’t accept even a few illegals in their tony surroundings, albeit that many there supported the Dems’ policy of a porous southern border. But please don’t forget NIMBY, OK? In this amateur’s article on the super-rich, I suppose to be fair I should mention someone like Trump in his former métier, paying off this or that bunch, borrowing like mad, etc.

But you know what? I love his skyscraper I saw not long ago on the Chicago River, right beside a much older gem, the Wrigley Building. Along with much else he and associates got done, and not in the “grifting” manner he’s sometimes derided in politicos mentioned above. At least the Trump people built, and beautifully; at least they added, they brought jobs galore, and so forth.

But I STILL can’t fathom life among the very rich. All I know is this: I don’t like the hypocrisy of certain denizens of that club, who play-act their constant care about the less fortunate. Or who commission King Kong yachts to outdo their peers’!.