Friday, February 6, 2009

Put America to Work!

Have you seen the list of the richest people in America according to Forbes Magazine?

Here’s the top ten:

1. William Gates III - 59 billion
2. Warren Buffett - 52.0 billion
3. Sheldon Adelson - 28.0 billion
4. Lawrence Ellison - 26.0 billion
5. Sergey Brin - 18.5 billion
6. Larry Page - 18.5 billion
7. Kirk Kerkorian - 18.0 billion
8. Michael Dell - 17.2 billion
9. Charles Koch - 17.0 billion
10. David Koch - 17.0 billion

These ten people have a combined wealth of over 270 billion dollars! You have to go over 400 numbers down on the Richest Americans list to even get under 1 billion dollars.

We should applaud these people for doing so well… after all this is America. Now, however, with the country teetering perilously close to a depression shouldn't we also ask these same individuals to show some personal responsibility… maybe even some nobility?

If these people decided today that their companies would not lay off workers, even if they had to dig into their own cache of cash to do it… well, it would hardly put a dent in their personal bottom line, but, it could make the difference between an economic downturn… and a national disaster.

What if they went even further and launched an American Enterprise Fund designed specifically to invest in thousands of new start-ups... with the condition that each of those companies had to put unemployed people to work. We all know that many, if not most of these companies would fail... as is the case with all start-ups. But, some companies would thrive. New ideas and new products would emerge and who knows, those investors might even get richer. At the very least, there would be a new wave of optimism and creativity that would sweep across this great nation.

So, I am challenging the American’s on that list to seize the day! Embrace this opportunity to make the difference of a lifetime. Put America back to work! We need you!

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