When Money Makes the Man

I believe a capitalistic economy is the best system for allocating scarce resources. I am not jealous or angry whatsoever at wealthy people who have made a fortune by creating businesses – competing, innovating and improving them. I truly admire entrepreneurs – not monopolists, but those who risk their wealth to make even more. What I find abhorrent is taking it one false step further, or, in other words, thinking a person’s value is measured by his fortune. It is foolish. Throughout my life, I have met very wealthy people who are trashy human beings, as well as extraordinary people who are poor or from the middle class.

So, where am I going with this?

I am more and more convinced that the next president of the United States only admires and respects those who are as immensely wealthy as he is. For the first time ever, the presidential cabinet will be made up of multimillionaires in the most capitalistic nation in history. These individuals, who have massive fortunes from having been successful entrepreneurs or managing directors of huge international corporations, will be alongside retired military leaders in running the U.S. after Jan. 20.

Trump has every right to select this type of person. There is no doubt that many of them will even become successful public officials. What I would like to highlight is the mindset of the next U.S. president, because it appears he only trusts people who are like him.

During the campaign, he spent the whole time bragging about how rich he is, and now he is surrounding himself with those very people. He thinks the value of a person is measured in dollars: more money, more worth. Not only is this apparent in his cabinet, but look at what he has done with Mexico since winning the election on Nov. 8.

To begin with, as was leaked to the press, Trump sent one of his most trusted associates, Corey Lewandowski, to meet with a group of Mexican businessmen. Names of the lucky few have not been released, but we can assume they are some of the country’s most wealthy. Now we come to find out that last weekend, Trump had dinner with Mexico’s richest businessman, Carlos Slim. I have nothing against these meetings. The takeaway for me is that the president-elect is reaching out first to those who share his ultra-rich status. First businessmen, then politicians. Slim before Peña. Why? Quite simply because those are the only people he respects and admires. Anyone else is a good-for-nothing who means nothing to him.

Would you like to be part of Trump’s cabinet? We’ll get back to you when you have hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars. Want to have a meeting with the president-elect? With pleasure, as long as you are on the upper end of Forbes’ multimillionaire list.

It is hard to believe Donald Trump ran as the anti-establishment candidate. The result is that he will be the president most representative of the crème de la crème, the super rich of U.S. capitalism. Will they be the ones to rescue the U.S. lower and middle classes from the swamp of Washington’s economic interests? Yeah, right.

I think of the great historical figures who left their marks on humanity without having enormous bank accounts. People of great value without exorbitant fortunes. What do Moses, Jesus, Mohammed, Shakespeare, Cervantes, Lincoln, Juárez, Darwin, Einstein, Newton, Churchill, Mozart, Beethoven, Da Vinci, Nietzsche, Freud, Gandhi, Galileo, Buddha, Kant, Voltaire, Van Gogh, Cicero and Locke all have in common? That Trump would not respect them because they are too poor for his standards. He wouldn’t meet with them or call them to help govern the United States. That is what happens when someone thinks that money is all there is to life.