CONCLUSION

A Call to Action

Using Your Voice

Because the self-made myth is so pervasive in our public dialogues today, it is necessary that we fight it at all levels. Each of us, from line workers to students to corporate CEOs, has a role in debunking the myth and its corrosive impact on the public policy debates of our times. But we can’t just knock down the self-made myth. We must also lift up in its place a more honest and complete understanding of individual and business success—what we call the built-together reality.

If you are a business leader, owner, or CEO, you have a unique position of credibility to challenge the self-made myth as it applies to your own life and success.

When you see a letter or editorial in your local newspaper about how some state or national progressive tax policy “punishes success,” write a letter back, pointing out that you are a successful businessperson but that your success is not entirely your own doing. Think about how the stories in this book apply to your own life, and tell your story of success and how it was supported by an array of public investments and fair rules made possible through governmental action. Explain why you believe you have an obligation to help support those public structures through a progressive tax system.

If you are active in a local Chamber or business association, be vocal at meetings about the need to fund, through our tax system, vital infrastructure that builds a foundation of prosperity that undergirds the entire community, including the businesses that operate within it.

Share your story with others through Responsible Wealth. We are gathering additional written and video testimonials like the ones in this book, and we welcome your story. To learn more see “About Responsible Wealth” at the back of this book.

If you are a progressive activist or community leader, challenge those in your group who may instinctively, and mistakenly, assume that all business leaders are against you. Some are, but many others are not. Seek out the business leaders in your community with an open mind and foster cross-class alliances that build greater political power and, ultimately, help better all of our communities. When you see local business leaders speaking out in favor of funding important public services, let them know they are not alone. Applaud their leadership and build new relationships where you can.

If you are an elected official, you have a unique opportunity to frame the kinds of policies we advocate in chapter 5, using language that moves toward a deeper understanding of the origins of individual and business success. As we move the public debate, it is essential that we advance this more honest narrative, including the built-together reality and the importance of investing in the common good, that is, the public investment imperative. To do so we need voices at every level, including those of elected officials who are allies in this cause.

If you are a student or an academic, organize programs at your university and use this book as part of class curricula, especially if you are at one of the universities that is now teaching Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged as part of its curriculum. As part of this book release, we will be touring the country and organizing panel discussions featuring some of the businesspeople profiled herein as well as other business leaders who share this view. If you want to use this book for a class or similar project, contact Berrett-Koehler for bulk pricing.

And for everyone interested in fostering a more honest dialogue about individual and business success, find an organization in your community that is taking action for a more fair economy. Help ensure that it is doing more than fighting for the short-term policy win but also working to change the way people think about wealth creation in the process. There are thousands of such local groups across the nation—far too many to list here. That said, United for a Fair Economy currently works with state-level organizations in 24 states as part of our Tax Fairness Organizing Collaborative (TFOC); these organizations are working to advance progressive tax policy at a state level, and all would welcome more supporters. UFE also has a national network of supporters engaged in online activism and community education. To learn more about the TFOC or UFE’s national network, see “About United for a Fair Economy” at the back of this book.

Responsible Wealth in Action

In 2001 Bill Gates Sr., a successful lawyer in Seattle, Washington—and father of the Microsoft founder by the same name—overheard a conversation in an elevator, where one man said to another, “We’re very close to getting rid of the estate tax.” He later said it hit him like a ton of bricks that the country would even consider repealing our only tax on accumulated wealth.¹

Soon thereafter Gates happened to be seated next to a member of the Rockefeller family at a philanthropy conference, and he mentioned that if he had more time, he’d start an organization called something like Wealthy People in Favor of an Estate Tax. As luck would have it, his dinner companion was able to tell him, “There’s already a group doing it, called Responsible Wealth, and I’m a member.”

Mr. Gates sent us an e-mail, got engaged, and began what has been 10 years of advocacy alongside Responsible Wealth and our parent organization, United for a Fair Economy, to preserve a strong estate tax. This work started with an ad in the New York Times and went on to include lobby days, personal meetings with senators, numerous press conferences, a book on the subject (and a book tour), and speaking engagements across the country. Gates’s advocacy, speaking with authority as a seasoned attorney and as the father of a rather successful entrepreneur, has been one of the most important factors in preventing the repeal of the estate tax.

There are many more success stories that we could tell from Responsible Wealth’s 14-year history, like Charles Demeré’s standing up at our founding conference in 1997 and pledging to give away his capital gains tax cut (inspiring our Tax Fairness Pledge); Barry Hermanson, founder of Hermanson’s Employment Service, who led a successful campaign for a living wage in San Francisco; Judy Wicks, who converted her restaurant to paying every employee a living wage in response to our Living Wage campaign; and the 90-plus New Yorkers who signed an open letter to the governor in 2009, saying “raise our taxes” to help fill the $19 billion budget gap. We could go on with this list for a long while.

In the three years prior to this book’s publication, much of the work of UFE and Responsible Wealth has focused on the critical tax debate in Washington, as the Bush tax cuts, originally set to expire in 2010, were extended through 2012. Throughout this debate Responsible Wealth members have spoken in favor of preserving a strong estate tax, ending the Bush tax cuts for high-income earners, and ending special tax breaks for unearned income. So many wealthy individuals were speaking up that Ashlea Ebeling of Forbes magazine wrote:

It’s not just billionaires like Warren Buffett and Bill Gates who say that there should be an estate tax, but just plain old rich folks are speaking out too.

More than 2,000 wealthy Americans who have paid or expect to owe estate taxes have signed a call to preserve the estate tax that was put out by United for a Fair Economy’s Responsible Wealth project. The signers include professors, farmers, small business owners, and lawyers … Some signers have a few million dollars, others tens of millions, but they are united in the words of the call: “We believe that permanent repeal of the estate tax would be bad for our democracy, our economy, and our society.”

The signers of the Responsible Wealth estate tax call are not just outliers, and some are billionaires. They include Forbes 400 members David E. Shaw, Julian Robertson Jr., George Soros, John Sperling, and Ted Turner. All six children of David Rockefeller, the oldest Forbes 400 member, have signed too.²

Warren Buffett pushed this one step further in August 2011 in his powerful op-ed “Stop Coddling the Super-Rich.”³ This article helped jump-start the public debate about the need for a more progressive tax system that did not exempt those at the very top from paying their fair share. His leadership contributed to President Obama’s including the “Buffett Rule,” which would require that millionaires pay at least the same tax rate as middle-class Americans, in the deficit reduction plan he proposed in September 2011.⁴

And while Buffett’s leadership, and that of other super-wealthy individuals, is admirable, we must always ensure that new faces and new voices enter the debate and strengthen the call for fairer and more responsible policies. That is the challenge we face, and it is part of the reason why we wrote this book. If we are to truly shift the public debate, we must ensure that as the Forbes writer noted, “It’s not just billionaires like Warren Buffett and Bill Gates.” It can’t be, not if we want to have a real impact.

Thank you for joining us in this important dialogue.