Most Western politicians are wealthy, either from their time before office or realized during their political tenure. Their wealth, in addition to their ideology, can often cloud their view of the public and its needs.
Bank Leumi is the largest Israeli bank, with around $118 billion in assets and business in nearly two dozen countries. A few years ago, I received a letter from my local branch. I am grateful that I can read Hebrew, but when the subject at hand reaches around 200 words, my eyes glaze over. So I asked my banker, a transplant from Maryland, what the letter meant. He proceeded to tell me a very interesting story.
He said that years earlier the bank had hired a company to do a survey of its customers. The central question in the survey was the following: “How much money is not money?” The idea was what is the maximum amount of money that you might forget in change or drop through a manhole and just not worry all that much about it. The consensus answer was 5 shekels, which depending on fluctuating exchange rates is around $1.25-$1.50. The bank used this information to quietly charge its hundreds of thousands of customers 5 shekels every month for a service called LeumiPhone. The service allowed one to call his or her banker and ask that wire transfers or payments and the like be taken care of without having to come into the branch (this is well before apps and ubiquitous high-speed internet). Leumi did not tell its customers about the charge, and each month it raked in millions of shekels from this fee, for a service that many had not requested and that not many ever made use of.
Things were going swimmingly until the bank decided to raise the monthly fee to 6.25 shekels. People started to notice and ask questions. The letter I received was telling me about a refund that was established by an Israeli court for all of the bank’s customers for the millions it had pilfered during years of charging for the service that nobody has asked for. It is a true case of a little greed bringing down the whole business.
I was reminded of Leumi’s caper when they again pulled Joe Biden out of his sarcophagus in order to tell the world about the importance of climate change. If you were to ask Joe Biden or Nancy Pelosi or any of the other multimillionaire members of the Washington establishment what the most important issues during the present election cycle are, they would probably include the following: climate change, J6 prosecutions, the safety of “trans” people, and getting illegal aliens as many benefits as possible. These are not the concerns of Americans whose incomes and savings are being ravaged by inflation. I hear that inflation is 3.3%, but when I go to Kroger in Las Vegas, I see that the eggs are up 20% and the steaks 50%.
Let’s think about Americans filling up their cars with gas. If they were paying $40 to fill up the SUV in 2020, they may well be paying closer to $100 today, depending on where they live. As they commute to work, they need their car and the car needs gas. The extra money spent on gas means that they will do without meat during the week or maybe they will skip going out to a restaurant as they used to do. Higher payments for rent, mortgages, and other facets of life may mean less money to sock away for the kids’ college education. For most Americans, life is “guns or butter”: buying one necessity may mean doing without a different one. Having cheaper energy and food during the pre-Covid days of the Trump presidency meant money left over for home improvements, travel, a new car and the like.
Now when you drop $100 to fill up your car, your first thought is if you have money in the bank to cover it. The second thought is what has to go so as to keep the family budget balanced. Now imagine that right behind you is a multimillionaire. Putting in $40 or $100 of gas into his car is merely a rounding error. His bank CD is making over 5% these days, and if the market has a good day, his net worth would go up by thousands of dollars—far more than his gas and food bill combined. For him, inflation and the persistent high prices of basic goods are a nuisance. For most Americans, they are a daily issue that means a lot of stuff is put off or dropped due to not enough extra cash in the bank.
I have a banker friend who works in Las Vegas. I try periodically to ask him how things are going there in the hotels and casinos. Las Vegas is the bellwether for discretionary money. Most normal people would not go there to drop money at the casino, take in a show or go to a Michelin-starred restaurant unless they had some free dough sitting around. When money is tight, room occupancy drops and there are layoffs on the Strip.
Democrats, in prioritizing issues not important to many Americans, do so for ideological reasons. But not only. Wealthy politicians do not know—or care—what inflation is doing to the lives of normal Americans. People who live behind big walls and send their kids to private schools like Mark Zuckerberg can wholeheartedly support bringing in millions of illegal aliens, with associated increases in crimes, lower wages, and higher rents. For them it is an abstraction; for those whose neighborhoods are overrun with the newcomers, it means a far less pleasant or safe life. Hollywood grandees with bodyguards can coo about gun control when their sumo bodyguards could drop a potential unruly fan in a second. Gun control somehow would not apply to their hired security.
Our wealthy leaders do not feel the pain of the American people. Our wealthy who’s who in the press, Hollywood, sports, and industry preach ideas and programs that have no impact on their lives but can destroy the lives of millions of others. Worries about a nonexistent “climate crisis” and celebrating mental illness associated with trans ideology only complete the reasoning why so many people support Donald Trump. This is the guy who brings Wendy’s burgers for everyone on his plane, and even with all of his wealth, can understand the financial needs and worries of regular Americans. Americans need a leader who can relate to their needs, not wealthy ideologues who do not care about the financial and personal well-being of their fellow citizens. Let them eat cake! No. Let them afford cake.