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Written by: Kamran Mofid

Published: 23 June 2017

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Dear President Trump,

Sometimes, the truth slips out. At a recent rally in Cedar Rapids you got to free-associating about the members of your cabinet who had come along for the trip with you. You mentioned Gary Cohn and Wilbur Ross, two of the Wall Street bigwigs who were recruited to run your National Economic Council and Commerce Department, respectively. You praised their great business minds, but more importantly, you bragged about how rich they are. And in the process, you went on to say that: "And I love all people, rich or poor,"  "but in those particular positions, I just don't want a poor person. Does that make sense?" 

Answering your question, I must, quite frankly, say that: No, Mr. Trump, it does not make sense to me!! 

Mr. President: We are not what we earn, otherwise, you, Gary Cohn, Wilbur Ross, the rest of the billionaires in your cabinet, all present in the US, well before you came to be the president and them, joining your cabinet, would had made America Great already, and thus, no need for you and them to come along trying to make America Great Again! Does that make sense?

Now, I know you are a well educated person Mr. Trump. Indeed, you once even had your own ‘distinguished and prestigious’ university!! Thus, I know you enjoy good readings. Therefore, allow me to oblige: 

You Are Not What You Earn 

'A fundamental belief of the modern world, which explains a lot of our anxiety around failure, is that we are what we earn.'

‘When we say this, we mean something very particular: not just that it’s nice to have a lot of money but that our income is the source of information, crucial, decisive information, about our character, our intelligence, our moral fibre: in short, money is the key indicator of our worth in human and not just financial terms. The more money we make, the more we deserve to exist…’- Please continue to read

And now Mr. President,

I am sure you have heard the very tragic news about the Grenfell Tower in London. The tower was burnt down last week. Many residents were burnt alive. They were all dignified people, but, mainly poor, on low income, meagre pension, or benefits.

I can only say, it is really a great pity, none of our politicians here in Britain, had said, like you, that, they too, love all people, rich and poor.  

Just imagine, if they had!

Perhaps, if they had, then, these poor people may not have been ‘killed’ and burnt alive at that poor-man’s tower in London! Does that make sense, Mr. Trump?

Please kindly read a bit more about the plight of the poor, disadvantaged, and disabled in one of the richest cities on earth, and then pray for us to learn from your super-billionaire cabinet, so that we, too, can, like you, aspire to make our country great again: Bastard Economics of Greedy Neoliberalism and the Killings of the Innocents in London Tower

And finally, Mr. President, I wish to tell you a story about a few very super-rich, billionaires from your own country, whom once they thought, they were some big things! I hope this story can focus our minds on who we are, why we are, and what we are:

Money, Meaningful Life, Self-worth, Wisdom and Happiness

In 1923, a very important meeting was held at Edgewater Beach Hotel in Chicago. Attending this meeting was nine of the world’s most ‘successful’ financiers and businessmen. Those present  were: the President  of the largest independent steel company;  the President  of the  largest  utility  company;  the  President  of the  largest gas company;  the greatest  wheat  speculator; the President  of the New York Stock Exchange;  a member  of the President’s  cabinet; the greatest ‘bear’ in Wall Street; the head of the world’s greatest monopoly; and the President  of the Bank of International Settlement. This, we must admit, was a gathering of some of the world’s most successful men – or at least men who had found the secret of making money.  Twenty-five years later (1948) let us see what had happened to these men:  

the  President  of  the  largest  independent   steel  company   had  died,   bankrupt,  having  lived  on borrowed money for five years before  his death;  the President  of the  largest  utility  company   had  died  a  fugitive  from   justice, penniless  in a foreign  land;  the President  of the largest gas company was insane; the greatest wheat speculator  had died abroad  – insolvent;  the  President  of  the  New  York  Stock  Exchange  had recently  been  released  from  Sing Sing penitentiary; the  member of the President’s cabinet had been pardoned from prison  so that he could  die at home;  the greatest  ‘bear’ in Wall Street had died– a suicide;  the head  of the world’s greatest  monopoly  had died– a suicide; the President  of the Bank of International Settlement had died – a suicide

All these men learned well the art of making money but none of them learned how to live, commented the original compiler of this list. It seems that the business world (who should know better, given what was described above) has changed not one iota. For them economic growth, the corporate bottom line and the pursuit of self-interest are what matters most. More recent observations also show that the self-interested pursuit of wealth brings only misery. Since 1950  there  has been much economic  growth and  wealth  creation  in the  West,  but  also a tenfold  increase  in the incidence  of depression  and a massive rise in the number  of people  suffering  from  sub-clinical  neuroses,  anxiety  and  profound  self-dissatisfaction, drugs and alcohol abuse, self-harm, suicide, and more…”

What a powerful and telling story! A lesson to all those who think that what matters most is money and money and loads of it! I hope that makes sense Mr. President!

I wish you well to make your country great again with the help and guidance of the real Adam Smith:

‘Adam Smith, the so-called father of modern capitalism, never called himself an economist. He called himself a “moral philosopher,” engaged in discovering the characteristics of a good society. He thought his best book was not The Wealth of Nations, the bible of modern capitalist apologists, but the Theory of Moral Sentiments, where he argued that the ethical basis of society lies in compassion for other human beings.'           

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Written by: Kamran Mofid

Published: 21 June 2017

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"In Unto This Last (1862), Ruskin turned to attack the economic system that he believed produced such despairing, inhuman relations of men in society. Unto This Last, whose four chapters first appeared in 1860 as articles in the Cornhill, consolidates the political position Ruskin had been evolving during the previous decade and sets forth the ideas he would continue to advance in Munera Pulveris (1862-3), The Crown of Wild Olive (1866), Time and Tide (1867), and Fors Clavigera (1871-84). Most contemporary readers found both Ruskin's general attitudes and his specific proposals so outrageous that they concluded that he must have been struck mad. Today, his political proposals, like his emphases on communal responsibility, the dignity of labour, and the quality of life, have had such influence that they no longer appear particularly novel. In the beginning of Unto This Last, as in Modern Painters, Ruskin confronts the so-called experts and denies the relevance of their ideas. Whereas classical economists proceeded on the assumption that men always exist in conditions of scarcity, Ruskin, who realized that a new political economy was demanded by new conditions of production and distribution, argues that his contemporaries in fact exist in conditions of abundance and that therefore the old notions of Malthus, Ricardo, Mill, and others are simply irrelevant. According to him, then, "the real science of political economy, which has yet to be distinguished from the bastard science, as medicine from witchcraft, and astronomy from astrology, is that which teaches nations to desire and labour for the things that lead to life: and which teaches them to scorn and destroy the things that lead to destruction." John Ruskin-'Unto This Last'

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Bastard Economics of Greedy Neoliberalism and the Killings of the Innocents in London Tower