Yes, some rich people do some very bad things, just as some middle and working class people also do some very bad things. I wholeheartedly agree and acknowledged that point more than once in my piece. However, that still does not mean that being wealthy is immoral in and of itself, that we must tax the daylights out of all the rich people in the U.S., or that we should put a cap on how much money rich people are permitted to make over the course of their lives.

If you want to make the case that our system is too soft on big banks, corporate polluters, etc., you won’t get any argument from me. I’m no fan of Wall Street, I despise Monsanto, and I haven’t filled up my gas tank at a Shell station since Ken Saro-Wiwa’s execution more than 20 years ago.

That said, there are plenty of very wealthy people, including more than a few billionaires, who didn’t cheat or harm anyone to get where they are today, and I won’t lump them in with the worst scoundrels of the corporate sector just because they happen to have a lot more wealth than I do. I’d prefer to treat them the same way I treat everyone else — on a case-by-case basis, that is to say.