I know most days you find this blog filled with stories in my life that get created by the goings on of my family. Sometimes, though, I am moved by stories in the world that compel me to share my thoughts. I know that others read them, but I also know that one day my boys will read these stories. Beyond memories for them, I hope they will one day shape the way they look at others.
I woke up this morning and had a few extra minutes, so I decided to do something I normally try to limit. I watched some of the morning news. After two reports, I realized why I so rarely tune in. It is a very discouraging way to start the day.
There was one story, though, that caught my interest. The protests on Wall Street. I had heard bits and pieces over the last week of the gathering in New York, but I hadn’t bothered to spend any real time understanding what exactly was going on there. After some brief research, I discovered that the group really doesn’t have any goals in terms of outcomes, they are mainly expressing their anger and frustration with many of the issues facing our country today.
Based on many of the signs they were carrying, it appears they picked Wall Street because they blame the rich for many of their issues. Signs like “Capitalism is Evil” and “Less is more”. Other demonstrators state they are protesting global warming and corporate greed. Others sum up their protest by saying they are there protesting “the man”.
I can only assume this man they speak of is the same man many of my friends and family and the people I eavesdrop on in restaurants and coffee shops refer to as the “rich” man. The same man that regular steals the show on Facebook and Twitter. He is that 1% that has become the bullseye for many protestors these days.
I decided I wanted to know who this man is. Who is this 1%. What does he look like? So I started with the Forbes list of the 400 wealthiest Americans. I recognized many of them. The front couple of pages of this list was born in Walmart, where I have spent some time.
I read down the list. I got beyond the Gates, the Kochs, the Waltons, the Buffets and the Facebook guy whose last name starts with a Z. I didn’t stop until I got to number 20. Forrest Mars. And after him, two more members of the Mars family. Now I was intrigued. I was intrigued by the notion that some of the richest Americans got that way by selling candy. I could hear Sammy Davis Jr. singing the Candy Man song, and I thought, yes, the candy man can.
When I was finished reading the story of the Mars family, whose path to rich started when their grandfather began cooking chocolates in his kitchen in the early 1900’s, I looked over at the two bags of M&Ms that I bought for the boys yesterday. I wasn’t sure whether to feel pride for contributing to a family success story, or if I should return them for contributing to the rise of “the man”.
I dug a little deeper and found that this country spends almost 2 billion dollars a year on M&Ms and almost 9 billion dollars on candy in general. Most of it goes to make the Mars family and the Hershey families richer. Yes, the rich keep getting richer. But to me, those are 9 billion reasons why I can’t join in this argument that somehow holds the rich accountable for, well, getting rich.
Maybe I don’t disagree so much with the argument that the rich are the problem. Maybe I just disagree with how this country seems to define rich. Because in a world that will lose 20,000 babies to starvation today, buying a bag of M&Ms for my kids would seem to qualify as the activity of a rich man. But this is a country full of individuals who many days like to pretend we are the world. We compare our meager 20 or 30 or 50 thousand dollar a year salaries to the Mars family and call a foul.
A couple hundred million of us look up in the air and protest the man. We can do that comfortably within the boundaries of the United States. But I need to tell you, several billion people outside of those boundaries look up at us, all red,white and blue of us, and collectively protest the man.
The medium income in the United States is 50,000 dollars. It is 1,700 dollars in Mexico. Yet there are few bigger issues in this country right now than finding a way to absolutely make sure we are doing nothing, and I mean nothing, to have our money support people fleeing that country to ours. A Republican candidate for the nomination to run for president recently declared that he was helping to finance the college educations of these immigrants in his state. He said he felt moved to help kids who came to this country through no fault of their own. That compassion, in all likelihood, cost him any chance of being president.
I sometimes wonder if people think they somehow earned the right to be born an American. It is the only thing that explains treating others like they somehow deserved being born in a country with a medium income of 1,700 dollars. I think we deny responsibility to those others by buying into the belief that we are underprivileged. It is easier sitting in the shoes that blame the man than wearing the man’s shoes.
Today I recalled the story in the bible about the rich young ruler:
Luke 18:18-23
[18] A certain ruler asked him, "Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"
[19] "Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No one is good -- except God alone. [20] You know the commandments: 'Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother.'"
[21] "All these I have kept since I was a boy," he said.
[22] When Jesus heard this, he said to him, "You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."
[23] When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was a man of great wealth.
After I re-read that story, I thought about those M&Ms. I thought about how hard it would be to sell them and deprive my boys of that luxury. The thought made me sad. And I realized that Jesus probably had an entirely different definition of the man. A broader one. One that extended well beyond Wall Street.
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