Fascination with Wealth

To the Editor: 
Our fascination with wealth has inspired many descriptions of varying focus, scope and truth. One popular with the naive and beloved by the rich likens its accumulation to the outcome of an egg hunt during which a few found many and the many found few because the few were energetic and the many were not.
Another description, one directed at its distribution today in America, views it as a monopoly game that has progressed to the point where one player controls almost all the properties, each covered with houses, while the sum of the competitor’s holdings is nothing more than naked Baltic Ave.
Moving beyond the getting and having of wealth, the following particulars of an old cartoon offers a glimpse of its little noted perks. In a town inhabited entirely by animals, 20 wrens toil in a birdseed factory upset by their employer, “Boss Dog” who routinely pressures them to work overtime free. Fearing bad consequences if they openly complain, they circulate their grievances by means of whispers. When word courses back to “Boss Dog” accusing him of “payday subtractions,” he, to keep his customers loyal and his income high, commences an effort to put polish to his image. First, he pays to have a waterfall installed in the park, his name inscribed on its front. He then arranges for a picture of himself cuddling a baby robin to be distributed near and far. Working behind the scene, he gains passage of an ordinance making the uttering of a negative rumor a violation of law punishable by a fine ranging from one feather to 10 hairs. Additionally, every Saturday at noon he positions his person in front of the post office so as to be seen passing peanuts to pigeons and smiles to all.
Soon “Boss Dog” is the recipient of grand praises from those who don’t work for him while those who do become enviously referred to as “The Lucky 20.”