Wilbur Ross is a millionaire who made a lot of his money restructuring and selling failed businesses such as steel, coal, telecommunications, and textiles. His nickname is King of Bankruptcy. This puts him in the same league as Donald Trump. He lives just down the road from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago playground retreat in Florida. But there are other compatibilities. Both deem it important to be viewed as supremely wealthy, despite reality, because it boosts their needy egos and helps with their profit-making efforts. Lying is of no concern to either.
The Office of Government Ethics has cited Ross for failure to fulfill ethical obligations in reporting business transactions and has been fined accordingly. Also, Reuters reports that Ross’s companies sent around 2700 jobs overseas since 2005. Despite this, Donald Trump named him as Secretary of Commerce in February of 2017. He seems to be the architect of much of the president’s tax cuts and infrastructure plans.
The Trump-Ross compatibility is that they are both economic imperialists. The philosophy of economic imperialism is that democracy is a tool for profit-making. And their goal is to control government for this purpose. Thus, when they are empowered by political office, they work to de-regulate any policy or law that inhibits profit-making in any way. They call it free enterprise. But it is a form of economic despotism where money is the measure of one’s worth. The back side of this view is that people who have financial issues are responsible for their own plight. Compassion for others is measured by their financial well- being.
Until late January, the government was in a shut-down mode authorized by Donald Trump. The next pay period was coming up with around 800,000 federal workers about to miss their second paycheck. Many were in dire financial circumstance and were visiting food banks, facing serious issues about health care, and were being threatened with foreclosures on houses and cars.
Were the economic imperialists concerned about these employees? Obviously not! Wilbur Ross symbolizes their attitude of non-compassion. He said he did not understand why these federal workers were so concerned about money. After all, any of them could visit their local bank and take out a loan with minimal interest to pay for necessities until they got paid again. This comment was from a man standing in front of the camera wearing $600 Stubbs and Wooton custom made house slippers. This picture perfectly summarizes the compassion economic imperialists have for those workers who make their fat profits possible – very little, if any.
These are the kind of people Donald Trump has placed in control of our government – people who reflect his lack of ethics and non-democratic attitudes – people for whom profit-making is their ultimate commitment – people who wonder why the middle and lower classes aren’t smart enough to take care of themselves financially.
Next time you go to vote – imagine Wilbur Ross wearing his $600 house slippers being embraced by his economic imperialist buddy, Donald Trump. And vote for democracy instead.
Robert
