Millionaires Suck

There are some really bad people in the world. And we reward them.

I was reading today that an Edvard Munch retrospective was coming to the U.S., and became sad as I remembered one of my favorite paintings.


Edvard Munch's "Skrik" (aka "The Scream", or "The Cry") was stolen in 2004. Do you really think the thief kept it? Put it up in his double-wide to admire over a cold Schlitz?

No - he fenced it, and the fence in turn had a buyer - a very rich one. A Private Collector.

When Baghdad's Iraq museum was looted of its treasures, most of the important cultural relics from some of mankind's earliest know civilizations were never recovered.

There is a large underground of antiquities dealers in the world who deal in stolen artifacts and art works. These are stolen from archeological sites and museums, and moved to these dealers as middle men. The buyers - millionaires.

This is theft, and the victim is human kind. We deprived of the knowledge and experiences these pieces can bring. (We are also deprived of associated tax dollars - and any attempts to do anything about it are squelched).

We can't fight millionaires. Millionaires can afford lawyers and years of litigation (we can't). Millionaires can afford to elect government officials sympathetic to their requests (we can't).

Millionaires get to be millionaires because we give them our money. After a certain tipping point, they no longer need us - the millions continue to make more millions. And an oligarchy forms.

We live in an oligarchy - not just in the U.S., but worldwide.

How to fight back?

(Okay, I admit, I saw "V for Vendetta" this week and my revolutionary fervor is up... :-)

My favorite line:

People shouldn't be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people. - V