A former hedge fund manager believes that charity causes
poverty.
It’s so great — truly
heartwarming — to see billionaires devoting their deepest thoughts to finding
solutions for eradicating poverty.
For example, I can’t
begin to tell you how grateful America’s homeless people are going to be once
they hear about Andy Kessler, who has been thinking long and hard about their plight.
Kessler is a former hedge-fund whiz, which means he was in the business of
making…well, money. Beaucoup bundles of it.
Having seen his
16-year-old son volunteer at a homeless center, this champion of the rich was
motivated to develop a plan to solve homelessness. Here it is: Stop dishing out
soup to those people and shut down all the shelters.
Gee, Andy, I recall
that Jesus said something about our Godly duty to feed and clothe the needy —
and even to wash the feet of the poor.
But apparently, Jesus
just didn’t grasp the essence of true morality. Blessed are the Rich, is
Kessler’s spiritual mantra. “Where does money come from…to help the
unfortunate,” he asked? And yea, I say unto thee, the Holy Hedge-Funder
answered his own deep question: It comes from “someone [who] worked
productively and created wealth.”
Thus, he sagely
concluded, the answer to poverty, to truly helping the poor, is not to pamper
the takers, but to provide more tax breaks for the makers of wealth (like him)
— the ones who produce “good old-fashioned economic growth.”
Wow, what a role model
this guy is for his son — and for all of America’s youth!
Wouldn’t you like to
buy him for what he’s worth…and sell him for what he thinks he’s worth? That
surely would fund a whole lot of homeless services.
OtherWords columnist Jim Hightower is
a radio commentator, writer, and public speaker. He's also editor of the
populist newsletter, The
Hightower Lowdown. OtherWords.org
