I do a lot of reading while I’m researching, and one morning I came across Andrew Mellon. He was a banker and industrialist. He also served as US Secretary of the Treasury (The third longest Secretary of the Treasury from March 4, 1921 to February 12, 1932. He also later became the United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom from 1932-33.)
But more than anything, the guy was rich. Rich. Rich. He was born into the wealthy Mellon family of Pennsylvania. His birth happened on March 24, 1855, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. But during his lifetime, he built his father’s bank —T. Mellon & Sons —into a financial ginormous thing. He also held interests in the aluminum, oil, and financial industries.
Mellon belonged to a remarkable group. His American generation saw the creation of incredible individual fortunes. I mean, this took place in unprecedented measures. The players in the midst of this abundance were John D. Rockefeller, Henry Ford, Andrew Carnegie, JP Morgan, and Henry Frick. And, of course, Mellon.
But Mellon was slightly different than the others. He hit all the “corners” of becoming a successful person. A sort of Rennaisance Man in that he excelled in four fields of endeavor. 1. As a businessman and banker. 2. As a politician and statesman. 3. As an art collector. 4. As a philanthropist. A huge philanthropist. One little thing — He gifted $15 million (way back then) to build the National Gallery of Art (opened in 1941), and he also donated a collection of paintings valued at more than $25 million to go in it.
Yet, none of this is the thing that struck me the most. It was the following paragraph in the article.
“In his day, Mellon was one of the wealthiest people in the United States, his wealth is estimated to have peaked at around $300–$400 million in 1929–30. He was also the third-highest income taxpayer in the mid-1920s, behind John D. Rockefeller and Henry Ford.”
That was back in a time when the rich people in America paid taxes right alongside everyone else.
Today, it seems that poor people pay a greater percentage than the rich. Since 2020, the wealthiest one percent have captured almost two-thirds of all new wealth.
And then there is this. According to a 2021 White House study, the wealthiest 400 billionaire families in the US paid an average federal individual tax rate of just 8.2 percent. To put that in perspective, the average American taxpayer in the same year paid 14 percent. These figures vary from source to source. I’ve listed the most “frequently” given numbers for these.
Regardless. That’s about a 6% difference.
My point is. We suck. The richest one percent hold the majority of the wealth in our nation. The total wealth of that one percent reached a record $45.9 trillion at the end of the fourth quarter of 2021, according to the Federal Reserve.
And what of it? People here in America are homeless and starving.
And I don’t know what else to say about this. I was going to write that “it won’t change.” But it probably will change. With the tax breaks the Republicans keep giving the rich, these benefits will continue to increase for the wealthy. People with low incomes won’t catch a break.
As they say. The rich get richer, and the poor get poorer.
And so we go.
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“The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.”
― Franklin D. Roosevelt
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“When the rich wage war, it’s the poor who die.”
— Jean-Paul Sartre
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“Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich.”
— Napoleon Bonaparte
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Taxing our minds. And our wallets.
