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Recommended reading from the new GQ. Ronson visits with different Americans in degrees up the wealth scale, from bottom to top.
There's something unusual about Nick. For a multimillionaire, he doesn't have your average multimillionaire view. In fact, he's come to believe that the system he benefits so richly from is built on nonsense—specifically, the idea that "the markets are perfectly efflcient and allocate benefits and burdens perfectly efficiently, based on talent and merit. So by that definition, the rich deserve to be rich and the poor deserve to be poor. We believe this because we have an almost insanely powerful need to self-justify."
And the biggest nonsense of all, he says, "is the idea that because the rich are the smartest, and because we're the job creators, the richer we get, the better it is for everyone. So taxes on the rich should be very, very low because we're essentially the center of the economic universe, the font of productivity." Nick pauses. "If there were a shred of truth to the claim that the rich are our nation's job creators, then given how rich the rich have gotten, America should be drowning in jobs!"
"So if the rich don't create the jobs," I ask, "who does?"
"The middle classes!" Nick roars. "A huge middle class will produce an unbelievable opportunity for capitalists."
I tell Nick about Rebecca and Dennis in Iowa, about how their health-insurance costs are preventing them from driving across the state to celebrate their anniversary, thus denying them happiness and small businesses across Iowa their money.
"I fly around in a $25 million Falcon 2000," he replies. "And they can't afford to drive across the state to celebrate their anniversary? It's not fair, and it's terrible for business. The best ideas in the world aren't worth jack shit unless you have someone to sell to."
And the biggest nonsense of all, he says, "is the idea that because the rich are the smartest, and because we're the job creators, the richer we get, the better it is for everyone. So taxes on the rich should be very, very low because we're essentially the center of the economic universe, the font of productivity." Nick pauses. "If there were a shred of truth to the claim that the rich are our nation's job creators, then given how rich the rich have gotten, America should be drowning in jobs!"
"So if the rich don't create the jobs," I ask, "who does?"
"The middle classes!" Nick roars. "A huge middle class will produce an unbelievable opportunity for capitalists."
I tell Nick about Rebecca and Dennis in Iowa, about how their health-insurance costs are preventing them from driving across the state to celebrate their anniversary, thus denying them happiness and small businesses across Iowa their money.
"I fly around in a $25 million Falcon 2000," he replies. "And they can't afford to drive across the state to celebrate their anniversary? It's not fair, and it's terrible for business. The best ideas in the world aren't worth jack shit unless you have someone to sell to."
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