Back in the 1990s and early 2000s, all five of my children married. Though I had been successful in my business ventures, no observer could have ever complained that I had been excessive in helping to pay for those memorable events.
For those weddings, a budget of $5,000 to $7,000—which in today’s money would have been around $18,000—was a challenge to their money-management skills and carried with it a practical understanding that whatever they were able to save would be theirs to spend on other useful things.
So, how did we do it? It meant using a free or cheap venue like a church rec room for the reception, a judicious choice of suitable, rented props—like an archway under which the newlyweds would stand for congratulations—and the participation of family and friends to keep the costs in check. My smart girls, understanding that a wedding dress is only worn once, opted for second-hand or rentals, and the grooms and groomsmen never owned their own tuxedos.
The light refreshments were just a touch above the Kool-Aid-and-cookies level. There were no limousines, and any special drinks were strictly BYOB.
All the weddings were performed locally. They went off smoothly, without any hitches, and the seemingly parsimonious budgets somehow did the trick. More important, the success rate for those marriages was much better than the national average—four out of five remain committed today.
While some might consider my thrift a fault, the weddings were an extension of the way in which my wife and I raised our kids. Like their parents, they had part-time jobs or businesses of their own while they were growing up, and they weren’t raised with the sense that, just because we were relatively well-off, they were somehow entitled to free rides and lives of ease.
That doesn’t mean that I didn’t believe in a little bit of “spoiling.” My children’s lives were filled with adventure and fun, mostly centered around outdoor activities. We had a cabin in the mountains, motorized toys, and we did lots of family vacations. Many holiday seasons were spent in Mexico, and we created lasting memories, cruising and exploring Lake Powell, Flaming Gorge and our other favorite recreational haunts.
The reality is that no amount of insane wealth could have made the joy of those weddings any better.
When I see America's fascination with hollow celebrities, with garish garb and altered faces and surrounded by meaningless wealth, I understand that as a country and world we have placed our admiration on the wrong people. Not only have we worshipped the rich, we have been woefully misguided in thinking that lots of money is the thing that makes lives meaningful and happy.
Skipping from those big events in my own children’s lives to the present, Americans and much of the world are somehow enthralled by the Jeff Bezos-Lauren Sanchez wedding, a $58 million spectacle that brought 200 celebrity guests together and virtually rented the entirety of Venice, Italy.
More than 90 private jets descended on the Venice airport. Stars, politicians and business magnates were simply used as props to create the illusion that there were actually people who liked Bezos. The bride’s dress cost a mere $300,000, and the diamond was big enough to be weighed on a regular home bathroom scale.
There was enough silicone, Botox and hair extensions at that wedding to stretch six times around the globe.
While some folks may have actually found it inspiring, the Bezos wedding was, more than anything, a ghastly obscenity of wealth that served as a reminder of the inequality and abuse that plague America and other “great” countries. It isn’t just a U.S. problem; it’s the terrifying specter that the entire world is toiling and struggling at the whim of the insanely rich.
As it now stands, a handful of billionaires hold the future of our world in their hands, while millions are starving, homeless and displaced. Not only do the uber-rich control much of the bad that makes life virtually unbearable for so much of mankind—including those industries that profit from destruction and killing—it is their misuse of wealth that has actually caused the problem, faithfully attending to the feathering of their own nests at the expense of everyone else. Sure, some of them do their publicity-seeking philanthropy, but, with the exception of Bill Gates, it’s almost never more than a “drop in the bucket.”
Getting back to weddings. Many have been riveted to their TV sets to watch that Bezos-Sanchez wedding. But the truth is that Bezos is an insufferable cheapskate and his bride should be complaining about his paltry expenditure. When compared to the net worth of an average middle-class American, the amount Bezos spent on the wedding would be under $200. Talk about miserly!
The sad thing is that the robber barons, with their inconceivable wealth, are in the drivers’ seat of a taxi cab taking us toward a yet-undisclosed destination. The meter is ticking away; it’s the common folk who are paying the fare, yet we can only guess where we’ll end up. It’s not looking good.
Anyone who believes that we don’t have a “world government” is wrong. We do, and its name is “Money.” Whether it’s the UK, France, Germany, Israel, Turkey, Brazil or one of the Trump-designated “shit-hole” countries of Latin America and the “Dark Continent,” you will see the same political mess. The sad reality is that wealth controls everything, and it’s cheating the rest of mankind out of a reasonable and tolerable existence.
Bravo! Look what we’ve done to ourselves. Greed and wealth were once insidious invaders, but now they’re out in the open, where the whole world can see the power that controls it and cheats the rest of mankind of its opportunities for comfort, health and a reasonable lifestyle.
There is no justification or adequate shame for the billionaires who own us. There is no excuse to sacrifice America by allowing the tax cuts that have allowed them to get more and more wealthy at the expense of the rest of us.
Bailing out our country from its crushing debt will take two initiatives: first, reduce the out-of-control government expenditures while keeping the social, research and charitable functions intact; and second, bring back the revenue-producing graduated income tax system that was once so successful and terminate the tax-dodging loopholes that have helped to make Uncle Sam an indebted pauper.
It is true that our country cannot survive much longer with its level of debt and the burden of paying the interest. But cheating everyone else—except the very rich—is not working. Give the power back to the people, and rein in the billionaires who believe this world belongs exclusively to them.
