 Forget Enron; We're All Going To Be Rich! |
 18 homes? I thought the President was your big buddy!" |
Yes, sir! Just hard work
is all it takes to get rich
By MURRY FRYMER
of TheColumnists.com
The flags I see everywhere speak of a conviction. Speak to Americans about their country, and they talk of freedom and opportunity and the right to speak your mind.
No one really talks about money, but there is another conviction in America. Hard work and dedication can make you rich. Put your nose to the grindstone, be the good employee, become your own boss if you are able. The sky's the limit.
There is an awkward silence at the moment where those convictions are concerned. Something has started with Enron. There is just a wee bit of concern that the game may have been fixed. Maybe years of hard work can--surprise--make you unemployed. Hey, how come the bosses own so many homes, earn so many millions, come out way on top even in the hardest of times?
This must be an aberration.
Yet, few Americans really believe that Enron is that rare story of fraud on the landscape. The mumbles around the water-cooler, after talk of the war on terrorists quiets down, sounds a deep undercurrent of cynicism. Yes, this is the land of opportunity, but the opportunities are not equal. Somehow, in a land where earners of the minimum wage still require food stamps to help their families survive, there are men and women who earn obscene amounts of money, men and women whose hands are soft, and whose hair is coiffed, whose talents are not for making things or creating things, but endowing themselves and their families with fortunes beyond the comprehension of most of us.
A Mrs. Kenneth Lay can speak on television of hard times, though she owns 18 homes and her husband has made hundreds of millions of dollars. She probably does think these are hard times. At her lofty level, those earning $7 an hour are beyond vision or even comprehension.
The hearings in Congress, in which Enron's and Arthur Andersen's culprits will claim not to have known what was going on, are being conducted by wealthy men who also live well. Somehow they will be shocked, shocked to learn what was going on with the company that was sending them campaign checks in such munificence. There will be an uncomfortable squirming as the congressmen and senators wonder if the vast majority of Americans will ever be truly outraged at the con game that keeps them in their place.
Maybe, maybe somebody will go to jail. An accountant, perhaps. A finance officer who doesn't have the perfect excuse or the well-connected lawyer. The hearings will end. The story will shift from Enron to some other firm where the CEO makes $300 million and doesn't know what is going on.
I am indeed grateful for the freedoms and opportunities in America today. But I am also aware of the hype that keeps the undercurrent of cynicism in check. American flags herald the bravery of firemen and policemen and Marines overseas, but none of them are the sons and daughters of the sickeningly wealthy. Ah well, we can buy the stocks of the Enrons, etc., and become wealthy that way, right?
Perhaps we can fix things before it is too late, before the cynicism explodes here the way it has in other lands. Are the riots at the doors of the global marketplace leaders telling us something? Is our underclass willing to sit and dream while our overclass escapes with all the goodies?
Enron is just the latest scandal that should open a few eyes. But somehow, whether savings-and-loan frauds or Teapot Dome frauds, they pass and we go back to believing. Work hard, save your money, volunteer for Mr. Bush's 4,000 hours of community service.
You, too, can be filthy rich.
©
2002 by Murry Frymer. The
Frymer caricature is © 2000 by Jim Hummel. The other illustration
is from IMSI's Master Clips Collection, 1895 Francisco Blvd.
E., San Rafael, CA, 94901-5506, USA.
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