Michael Shnayerson Quotes
In the Eisenhower era, when earnings over $400,000 were subject to 91 percent taxes and the world was a smaller place, you could count the truly wealthy on one hand: Getty, Dupont, Mellon, Rockefeller, though even those fortunes were being dispersed to children as the old robber barons died off.
Shnayerson, Michael. Boom: Mad Money, Mega Dealers, and the Rise of Contemporary Art. PublicAffairs, 2019.
The accumulation of wealth of some of the richest families was too great even for this man who was one of the wealthy establishment. He therefore supported an inheritance estate tax, in order to redistribute the income, and put a stop to the accumulation of wealth in only a few families.
Every economically successful American had help in amassing is fortune. The police who protected his assets, the roads and canals on which he transported his goods to market and obtained raw material. The labor force that was educated by the state. The patent system that protected his inventions. The money supply that has been made available, the registry of land and property ownerships and deeds. The courts to resolve disputes. The general affluence of the nation to buy his product or services. These have been paid for by the taxes of all Americans. All have helped the successful on their journey to wealth and their ability to keep it from those who would use violence to take it. The successful entrepreneur however has usually made extraordinary effort and exhibited extraordinary talent and skill which is why not everyone is as affluent. No one lifted themselves up by their own bootstraps, but many have with their own talent and work, climbed a very difficult ladder that the nation had in place.
Michael Beahan Shnayerson is an American journalist and contributing editor for Vanity Fair magazine. He is the author of several books and over 75 Vanity Fair stories since 1986. Two of his pieces for the magazine have been developed into films.
