Rich People
- Dr. Lloyd
- 2 minutes ago
- 6 min read
An essay by Dr. Lloyd Sederer
You know the old saw about rich people, attributed to an exchange between Fitzgerald and Hemingway? To paraphrase, ...they are different, they have money.
Money may be their common characteristic, though rich people are as varied as species of birds or gerbils. Except, of course, they are hominids.
As a boy, my parents and relatives used to talk about rich people in hushed tones, with a reverence befitting Saints, except we were not Catholic. Rich people were not just different, awash in money, they seemed to have achieved a special standing in the scheme of things. They stood as beacons for having “made it” in the “new country”, the United States. They were what my father, especially, aspired to be. My parents, not educated beyond high school, confounded caste with money.
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There are three ways to get rich: inheritance, earning (aka working, sometimes with good luck thrown in), and stealing. The last method, stealing, being a goniff (Yiddish), a thief, has been around probably longer than the others. But aside from violating the Eighth Commandment, sooner or later you are apt to get caught.
Over time, in this country, the passage of wealth from one generation to the next has become easier, with greater amounts possible, thanks to smart lawyers and more recent federal IRS codes.
Accumulating money, however, as an investment firm once advertised, is usually achieved the old-fashioned way, by earning it.
But race, poverty, or lack of access to a good education are common barriers to a livable wage, no less becoming rich.
Luck has its uncertainties, often dependent on being in the right place, at a time of growth and prosperity.
If you know of a fourth way to get rich, please contact me.
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For Jewish families of my era, the rich goyim (Yiddish for non-Jews, often not complimentary), were virtually impossible to emulate. Not just their wealth, but their manners, their education, their class.
Among the goyim were the old rich, born of sea pirates and bankers. They lived on Sutton Place in New York City, or Marblehead in Massachusetts. Some had second ‘homes’ in Connecticut or Quogue (wherever that may be).
Some amassed fortunes through their railroad, steel, oil, and financial empires. The uppermost included the “Robber Barons”, such as J. Pierpont Morgan, John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, Cornelius Vanderbilt, and Andrew Mellon. They ushered our nation into its transformative, industrial revolution.
The richest Americans of the 20th Century included John D. Rockefeller, his fortune owing to Standard Oil, which controlled 90% of the earth’s production of petroleum. Joseph P. Kennedy, the patriarch of the Kennedy Dynasty, said to have been no sweetheart, who amassed plenty in finance. There was the Hearst family, whose wealth began with newspapers; they then became oligarchs of radio and television. Among the economic royalty of bankers and investors, were the Rothschilds, New World Jews.
More Jews became rich, especially after World War II. Their wealth came from owning large corporations and investing; these were men such as Soros, Bloomberg, and Lauder.
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Our 21st Century has been one of “oligarchies” (from the Greek meaning, few to rule or command). The US and Asia has by today produced an ample supply of billionaires; Jews included. Their wealth (and that of their progeny) has accrued from founding and leading corporations, including NVIDIA (Jensen Huang), Apple (Steve Jobs), Microsoft (Bill Gates), Berkshire Hathaway (Warren Buffett), Amazon (Jeff Bezos), Google/Alphabet (Larry Page), Facebook/META (Mark Zuckerberg), Tesla/SpaceX (Elon Musk), and TSMC (a Taiwanese semiconductor company, Morris Chang Chung-mou). These are the really rich, like they are made of gold, though some having lost its luster.
The US and Russia are the only countries with similarly high levels of concentrated wealth (aka income inequality).
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Were you wondering, these business royals did not inspire my envy, nor a drive to make a lot of money. Psychiatrists (as I am) are among the lowest earning doctors, though beat to the bottom by pediatricians.
I was/am an assimilated Jew, 2nd generation American. But the wealth I discovered and have pursued was intrinsic to public service. As a physician, psychiatrist, and public health doctor.
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As a teenager, on weekends I worked in my family’s stationary store. A stately, older man, Jewish, arrived early on Saturday and Sunday mornings to buy the newspapers, and occasional sundries. My father regularly got into a conversation with him, my best guess was that it was about business, or the stock market. I knew my father thought this man walked on water. I learned he had built the largest hospital supply company in the US. When I was 16 and had a Social Security Card, my father asked him to get me a summer job. He did, in his son’s new business of office machines (like Fax machines) in lower Manhattan, a mere 75-minute summer sweltering subway ride, one-way, from our home in the north Bronx. This was how my father arranged my exit from the family business.
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John Gardner remarked, “Wealth is not new. Neither is charity. But the idea of using private wealth imaginatively, constructively, and systematically to attack the fundamental problems of mankind is new.”
Philanthropy derives from the Greek and means love of or kindliness to mankind (sic). The earliest forms of philanthropy, aside from helping thy neighbor, were religious in nature. Giving to a Church, as a tithe, was every parishioner’s duty, as it was in Shul (the Jewish Temple). Prosperous landowners and merchants in the Middle Ages sought mercy and recognition from their donations to their religious orders. The growth of cities and a more secular culture gave new meaning to giving.
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The 20th century brought greater prosperity and opportunity. Andrew Carnegie wrote of a Gospel of Wealth, calling for redistribution of the money concentrated in the rich for the public good and to those far less fortunate. Seems his message has been too lost in the 21st Century.
Titans of industry, such as Carnegie and the Rockefellers, founded private foundations for giving, which brought discipline to what had often been aimless and unaccountable earlier charitable efforts.
Mid-20th century philanthropy aimed to respond to the surging needs of veterans and civilians living in post-war economies and communities. A growing ethos of human and civil rights added momentum to giving to those less fortunate, for reasons beyond their control. Philanthropies at national and community levels (with local missions), emerged.
Today, we have global, family wealth philanthropies and philanthropists, like Gates, Rockefeller, Buffett, Hughes, Soros, MacArthur, Pew, and Bloomberg, as well as corporately financed charities. They focus on health, public health, economic equity and vitality, education, women’s rights, individual and community victims of natural disasters, and some fund technological advances. A quantitative method now imbues outcome focused charities, where specific and measurable aims determine if support is provided, and careful, ongoing monitoring assesses if these purported goals are being achieved.
Rich and not-so-rich people often, but not always, are given to “paying forward”, the concept that when we are the beneficiaries of good fortune, that wealth should enable others to have a chance. Philanthropies are expert in engaging givers, from the well-heeled to small donors with an emotional stake in the enterprise. Tax benefits, as well, accrue to those – in this country – who share their wealth.
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Among wealthy families, there is a long history of public service, as elected and appointed officials in municipal, state and federal government, and on not-for-profit Boards. Emissaries of peace have often been the rich and famous. Some are just good old-fashioned public servants, privileged to take on the mantle of social responsibility, at government and not-for-profit wages, and in charitable ways.
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I don’t know why I never had an appetite for making money – to accrue wealth. Not that I don’t like the benefits money can provide. I was, like many a good Jewish boy, shaped to be a doctor; others became lawyers and other professionals, including (God forbid, say many dads) musicians and artists.
My father was fine with my entering the medical field, but hugely disappointed when I entered training to be a psychiatrist, instead of a surgeon (where I would have more respect and earn a lot more money, he believed). During my psychiatric residency, I kid you not, he offered to lend (not give) me money (with interest) so I could switch out of psychiatry and go into general surgery, neurosurgery, ophthalmology, even orthopedics. As you can see, I did not take him up on the offer. I don’t recall what interest rate my father expected from his loan.
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Lloyd I Sederer MD is a psychiatrist, public health doctor, and non-fiction writer.
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