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Billionaires Good & Bad

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Veronica and Walter Annenberg

Some billionaires when they die leave behind treasures that could be enjoyed by future generations. Some actually manage to make the world a slightly better place. Such was publishing magnate Walter Annenberg (1908-2002). From 1969 to 1974, he also served as U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom. His palatial 800+ acre estate at Sunnylands in Rancho Mirage served as the western version of Camp David, where world leaders met and discussed global issues.

Most billionaires, I’m sad to say, are merely a waste of skin. I am not interested in naming names, because you know who I mean.

Last Sunday, I took the tour of the Sunnylands estate and was impressed by the beauty of the house and grounds.

View from the Lower Terrace of the Sunnylands House

Now the Coachella Valley is a fairly populated place. You would never guess that from Sunnylands. There are wonderful views of Mount San Jacinto and the other mountains around Palm Springs—but the estate is so situated that one can’t tell that there are any houses or business districts in any direction. Where one would expect to find them, one is confronted by trees that give the estate a sense of splendid isolation, even though it is readily accessible from busy Bob Hope Drive.

I had visited the grounds of the estate twice before and strolled the lovely cactus gardens. The house tour, on the other hand, but be reserved and costs a pretty penny. But it is definitely worth it.

Unfortunately, it is not permitted to photograph the interiors, but I will try to find some previously published photos that I can show you in a later post.

America’s Love Affair With Billionaires

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Elon Musk

Why do Americans shower their billionaires with a level of adoration normally reserved for deities and saints? I think back to the Medicis and the Borgias during the Italian Renaissance. As J. H. Plumb wrote, “Commercial capitalism, struggling the the framework of feudalism, learned, through Italy, not only how to express itself in art and learning, but also how to make an art of life itself.”

Not so today, however! Donald Trump has given us golden toilet bowls, ornate golf courses, and tried to take away our democracy. Elon Musk managed to convince thousands of Americans that he was a genius—until he spent $44 billion buying Twitter and running it into the ground. After his latest anti-Semitic tirade, I think even most Tesla owners are rethinking their allegiances.

I cannot think of a billionaire today who has done anything but engage in self-aggrandizement. Instead of a Renaissance, we are now in a period that can only be described as Anti-Renaissance.

What ever happened to patronage of the arts? Oh, it still exists at the millionaire level; but not among the Trumps, Musks, and Bezoses of this world. The think the last billionaire to show any moves in this direction was Bill Gates of Microsoft fame.

Enough of Billionaires Already!

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Scrooge McDuck Enjoying His Wealth

I cannot for the life of me imagine that being controlled by billionaires is somehow good for America and its people. Billionaires are essentially people who are interested only in looking after their own interests: If they can find profit in selling their grandmothers to be rendered at a glue factory, why then they will  be sorely tempted.

Why do voters admire billionaires? Do they honestly think that somehow their own financial situations will be magically improved? After all, they just as often job destroyers as job creators. You can see this in action when there is a corporate merger, followed by a round of lay-offs. Are coal miners from West Virginia or ranchers from Wyoming welcome at Mar-a-Lago? Yes, but only if they themselves are billionaires.

That is why I am not particularly excited about Michael Bloomberg becoming the Democratic candidate for President. He may have been a better mayor of New York City than Rudolph Giuliani, but I suspect he still thinks like a billionaire.

 

 

Billionaires Are No Heroes

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They Love Themselves Too Much to Deserve Your Love

The 2016 election of the Trumpf showed me that, to an increasing extent, Americans are enamored of their billionaires. They are called “job creators,” when when they fire thousands of workers after their failed mergers and acquisitions. Even though some of them have proved useful to their fellow Americans (notably Bill Gates and Warren Buffett), most are not worth spit. We are currently watching one of them, Elon Musk, become unglued, risking his former godlike status.

In last week’s edition of The New Yorker, there is an almost book-length profile of Mark Zuckerberg of FaceBook, a man who would sell his mother to a Russian glue factory just for the lulz.

I was at the Farmers’ Market with my friend Robert today. We both agreed that part of Trumpf’s popularity is due to the fact that even the most idiotic, toothless redneck thinks he or she can become a billionaire—just so they can tell everybody off who ever dissed them, or even looked as if they might diss them. Also, maybe they would like to have a go at their favorite porn stars, even if they have nothing but a pathetic little stump for a weapon.

In time, a few of the most astute of them (there must be at least or or three spread across this great nation of ours) will figure out that they have been had. This is a president whose policies help billionaires, but no one else. The others will continue to be raped at their leisure until they die, get thrown out of their hovels, or succumb to a lack of reasonable health insurance.