These must be utterly baffling times for the successful, public-spirited financier in New York City. You’ve made your living not by snatching bread from the mouths of widows and orphans or otherwise exploiting the masses, but by producing consistent returns and financial security for your many grateful clients. Your company has generated billions in economic prosperity for the city, with all the concomitant property and income tax revenue. And you’ve dedicated your life not just to doing well but to doing good. You lavishly fund all sorts of local and national worthy causes (medicine, education, the arts) with donations totaling hundreds of millions of dollars. You undoubtedly don’t do it for the kudos, but under the circumstances, you might expect New York’s elected officials to be at least quietly appreciative.
Instead, the prevailing sentiment seems to be outright hostility. The newly elected, avowedly socialist mayor of New York held a press conference on the sidewalk outside your residence and identified you by name, not to thank you, but to announce that you and your exploitative ilk should contribute even more in taxes to the city.
Another socialist, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives representing Queens and the Bronx, asserted that it’s a “myth” that people like you could possibly have earned their money by legitimate means. (“You can’t earn a billion dollars. You can get market power. You can break rules. You can do all sorts of things. You can abuse labor laws. You can pay people less than what they’re worth.”)
