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Prejudice against wealthy costs us leaders

We have come to a point where successful people that are wealthy will not be able to win a political office. Ironically, these are the people that have the experience and skills and abilities to run large organizations efficiently and well.

These are the people that won't be using their offices to build their personal wealth because they don't need to. They are in the perfect position to do the right thing for the long-term benefit of the population.

However, the general population has been taught from the time they can walk that people only get rich if they exploit people, cheat people, cheat on their taxes, and otherwise do unethical things.

It is my theory that this anti-success attitude has been fostered by our educational system that teaches that capitalism is bad and that capitalists are bad and that just the act of attaining wealth is bad.

We have come to the point where much of our society is tainted by this widespread message - nobody gets rich without being bad in some way.

It goes further, too. Anyone that would choose capitalism and getting rich over some type of government service is somehow inherently flawed. But a community organizer or a professional politician somehow has their heart in the right place over a capitalist that employs thousands and puts food on a lot of tables.

As long as our population is brainwashed that wealthy business people are villains and "fat cats" and that people in lifelong government service are living a sacrifice and have their heart in the right place, we will be losing out on the people that have the most skills to run these organizations.

John Behof

Kildeer