Dr. David Lay Williams is a professor of political science who studies the role of economic inequality in the history of political thought. He wrote the following quote as a guest writer in the New York Times addressing ancient concerns regarding the super wealthy.

“For Plato, the source of inequality was a disease of the soul that the Greeks called pleonexia — a kind of insatiable greed. In Plato’s “Gorgias,” Socrates likened this condition to a leaky jug: No matter how much water one pours into it, it will demand more.  .   .

.   .   .Someone consumed with his unquenchable desires comes to love himself far beyond what he can feel for the rest of humanity. He was, for Plato, “a poor judge of what is just and good and noble,” because he would always treat his desires as more valuable even than the truth. As a consequence, Plato wrote, “it is impossible that those who become very rich also become good.”

The blending of super rich individuals with the responsibilities of governance is a fatal error over time for a democracy. Wealth wraps the human being in a form of insulation that eventually throttles the feedback mechanism of life and kills the governing instincts.  Wealth can reduce a person to a well dressed zombie no longer caring or concerned beyond the acquisition of more of everything.   Our culture will begin its recovery from the scourge of wealth when we treat large wealth like we treat anorexia, a critical illness requiring an intervention.  

Modest Proposal for Good

The only direct counter to the terminal illness of wealth is the practice of generosity which can lead to a sense of service and maybe even love beyond the black hole of selfishness.  Everything else is time wasting chit chat. Here are some thoughts for making a good decision at the polls. A political candidate who has wealth should be required to demonstrate the development of antibodies to the myriad symptoms  of wealth as a terminal disease.  In the life course of the  super wealthy, personal wisdom is the first fatality of character necessary to govern, empathy the second, and further down the road even strategy rots to the ground.  The proof of an effort to recover for a super wealthy person would be an established pre-political track record of generous giving and authentic service to the public. Building casinos, leveraging wealth from engineered bankruptcies, and preening on television would not qualify.  Elect people with a history of genuine public service and a life experience of successfully working inside a budget.  Only they would know the feelings, values, and concerns you, and the average working American citizen carry in their hearts. That would be so good for the next democracy.