J.P. RICHIE INTERVIEW, PART I

Mr. J.P. Richie has 42 billion dollars. While he invests widely, much of it was gleaned from the cigarette, whiskey, and pornography industries. He has transferred most of his companies' jobs to Pakistan. He contributes heavily to the Republican party and conservative causes. He is a major donor to the tea party and Religious Right movements and is on record as stating, "If there's one thing I like better than Jesus it's a huge tax cut." He has agreed to sit down with To Hell With Conservatism (THWC) for a free-wheeling discussion.

J.P. Richie: I'm a fervent patriot, a model of industriousness, and a big public benefactor. Why do you have it in for me?

THWC: Mr. Richie, what you are is an obscenely rich parasite, and your taxes should be raised enormously to cut down on your discretionary influence in the name of democracy and to provide the government with revenue for addressing serious social problems.

JPR: Why, that's outrageous. That's punishing success, I tell you!

THWC: You don't represent success. You represent fat income, whether or not it is derived from activities that have social value. Real success is where everybody wins. Excess is where you win and everybody else loses.

JPR: This is a free country, and when I make money I should be allowed to keep it!

THWC: People don't make money these days. Money makes money. That's what capitalism is about. All you did is raise capital and invest in growth industries using other people's wealth, then pocket the profits.

JPR: It's people like me, who can spot the winners and put early money into them, who make progress happen!

THWC: What precisely are we rewarding you for? For putting money in companies that are ahead of the curve and can win with or without you as an individual?

JPR: Without investors like me, how would they grow? I make things happen!

THWC: You don't have to do a thing, while your profits get larger and larger. So just what are you succeeding at? You've parlayed opportunism into unlimited automatic wealth. Where is the merit in not taxing what you're doing nothing to earn?

JPR: My corporations have introduced important technological innovations!

THWC: Your employees came up with those innovations. They got thousands in bonuses while you got millions from what they achieved. Where's the justice in that?

JPR: Damn it all, I worked hard for what I own, starting up those businesses! The government can't just take it away from me!

THWC: The wage slaves in your Third World sweat shops work as hard as you ever did and have next to nothing to show for it. If effort is what justifies wealth, how come you have so much of it and they have so little? And why are you satisfied with that arrangement?

JPR: Listen, you commie, this society needs smart people like me to guide its decision-making. My input helps government focus on what's important, and my personal and corporate income are part of what enables that.

THWC: You mean you send out troupes of lobbyists and make heavy political contributions to make sure the Congress and state legislatures represent your interests and not the people's interest. You're not a public asset, because all you do in the public square is look out for number one. When the people let you keep most of your money, they're involuntarily financing someone who's in competition with them. Why should they have to do that?

JPR: But when I invest or start a business, it means jobs. I create wealth!

THWC: Your businesses mostly do things that alienate people from one another and tend to dissolve society. Why should you be given tax breaks for that? And as for the paychecks you provide, most of them don't even go to Americans anymore.

JPR: Americans are greedy. They want too much pay for what they do!

THWC: My point exactly.

To be continued.