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No one likes paying taxes, least of all billionaires. They’d rather buy yachts. Obliged to keep up appearances, they give to charity, some less than others, Elon Musk being the stingiest. Nonetheless, they are lavish in their political contributions to politicians who favor their views. Musk can afford to be especially generous as our government subsidizes his business ventures to the tune of billions of dollars.
Some rich folks pay $250 for a jar of honey because… well, doesn’t everyone? (“Have You tried Martha’s Honey?” by Max Berlinger, Town&Country, Sept. 2024, pg.53.) Most of the time, I’m indifferent to the eccentric lifestyle of the super-rich. Reading about the diamond heiress whose husband shared her wardrobe, I didn’t bat an eye, even when she said his “femininity was one of his many talents,” (“Twisted Love Story,” by Alice Hines, Vanity Fair, September 2024, pg. 110). Why should I? Their behavior does not harm society. Extravagant expenditures to promote lies is a horse of a different color, however.
Musk is one of those who rides a plaid pony. The European Union (EU) complained that his company, X, sold blue tics that purported to verify a person’s identity. The statement proved to be a lie. An investigation found that anybody could pay for a blue tic and remain anonymous. Because of that subterfuge, the EU concluded the blue tic encouraged malicious actors to abuse the system. Musk retorted that a demand for greater transparency was censorship.
That same billionaire has also quarreled with Brazil. Rather than submit to their regulations, he cut the cable literally and delivered his network via his satellite system, Starlink. Brazile’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, convinced that X was guilty of spreading hate speech and lies, threatened further action. Just because this guy has a lot of money doesn’t mean he can disrespect this [country].
Musk’s response was to pull the plug on Starlink as well, leaving millions of Brazilians in the dark. Not one to miss a beat, he turned his lens on Presidential candidate Kamala Harris and circulated a false image of her dressed in the garb of a communist dictator. Clearly, he is a man who believes that lies are entitled to be treated as protected speech. A majority of us think otherwise. To bury the truth under a mountain of distortion is the moral equivalent of book burning.
Musk isn’t the only billionaire who employs a surplus of money to tinker with our democracy. Timothy Mellon donated $50 million in May to Donald Trump’s campaign. Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg wrote huge eight-figure checks in July to support both Republican and Democratic super PACS. Money is power, after all, and I suspect many of us would do the same if we had it. One plutocrat admitted the truth when he said, “I’m against very wealthy people…influencing elections. But as long as it’s doable, I’m going to do it.”
As a nation, we’d be foolish to look to the rich to defend our democracy against money’s influence. The job falls to We the People. Citizens United took away the few guardrails that protected us from the antics of the super-rich. Those guardrails must be restored and strengthened. To do so requires more than a change in political leaders because few can resist the money trough when it’s their turn at the slopes. Each new guard will behave like the old one because neither political party can see further than the next election.
Mark Twain, like centuries of satirists before him, was both humorous and forthright when he said we have the best government money can buy. It will stay that way until We the People wrest our democracy away from billionaires and their sycophants.
