RICH: Follow the numbers

On April 22, in The Press, Jim Selzler wanted to know, "who are the rich, exactly?"

I'm glad you asked that question, Jim. If you'll listen up, I'll try to help you out on that.

First off, the rich are the ones who buy the yachts, logically speaking. I am surprised you didn't think of that.

Secondly, more than the rest of us, the rich tend to buy more homes than they need. Just by counting them you can learn a lot. It also helps to know their location, size and other features. For example, you ever hear someone refer to their mansion in the south of France with five bedrooms, four bathrooms, 20,000 square feet, a theater and swimming pool, as their summer cottage, well, that gives it away.

Thirdly, those of the upper-class are about the only folks left in America who can still send their kids off to a really good college and actually pay for it. So, that is a clue. And if they pay for it out of petty cash, you can be certain that they have a lot of money.

The rich can and do create jobs, as you point out, Jim. But it seems like a lot of those jobs have been going to foreign countries lately, in case you have not noticed. Also, you may have noticed that the corporate bigwigs doing that, by closing factories and exporting jobs, manage to get even richer in the process. I am talking about big seven-figure bonuses here. So, if you know of someone who has or is doing that sort of thing, that person would have to be considered quite wealthy.

It is pretty obvious that your main concern is the threat of the rich among us being overly burdened by taxes. Your concern is shared by many on the right. I would suggest that you broaden your definition of the word "earn," a simple thing to do.

Something called the Law of Inverse Compensation might be instructive. It operates on the premise that what is actually earned has little to do with salaries, bonuses and other forms of compensation received. Some of us earn more and some of us less than what we are paid for. What we really earn, according to this law, is measured in the balance of who we are and what we do, how our work and our works benefits the society and environment we live in.

The Law of Inverse Compensation points out obviously that many folks meet the obligation necessary to keep society rolling along, while too many others merely collect the benefits.

I would quote you the law verbatim but I am still working on it.

DEL CAMERON

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