Contrary to the old joke, the rich may be different not because they have more money but because of what they choose to do with that money. In our country they seem to want to spend their money influencing the government to keep their taxes low. In other words, rather than participating in the democratic process by contributing their fair share of revenue necessary to sustain the government, they will go to all financial lengths to avoid doing so.
Other cultures seem to approach wealth in different ways. There is a particularly disturbing video just put up on the BBC News Web site. The topic is a major increase in illegal trade in endangered animal species. The story inquires rhetorically into the origin of this kind of demand. My guess is that it is another symptom of how the rich are different. They do this kind of thing for no other reason than that they can do it. In other words they muck around with the ecological balance of endangered species in the same way that our “captains of industry” muck around with global climate conditions.
I suppose the rich are different in what they do because they know that the rest of us can’t do a damned thing about it.
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