Why I do not hate all the wealthy.

I just have a bone to pick with the ones trying to destroy us all.

Alex Ates Haywood
4 min readJul 11, 2020

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Photo by BP Miller on Unsplash

Recently I got accused of hating and ignoring the contribution of the wealthy to our society, their altruism, and the advances we got as a result of their leadership and capital-driven progress.

Please do not misunderstand my position. I do not hate “the wealthy” because they are wealthy. First, I do not “do” hate. Hate is misplaced fear. But, fearful we should be. Unlike the British in WWII, “We do have something to fear, besides fear itself.” Sorry, Winston.

I worked at a major Wall Street firm for 20 years and had many wealthy clients (No billionaires, but people who qualify for the 1 % title none-the-less.)

Some of them were wonderful people. Intelligent, empathetic, generous. Open to change and making commitments to a larger good. Some became friends.

Most were like you and me, with some extra zeroes to their name on a computer screen. They had differing opinions, fears, needs, and limits to their vision that they could not overcome. Some were open to change, most not. They passively benefitted.

“The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything.”

Albert Einstein.

Then there were others. The ones intelligent enough and informed enough to realize the extent of the looming ecocide, economic calamity, and genocide. But refused to change. To budge. Deliberately.

While trying desperately get off an increasingly doomed planet, they simultaneously still:

Support and invest in sections of the energy industry that have a vested interest in the continuation of the use of carbon-based fuels; and the bankers who facilitate these investments,

They refuse the responsibility they have for centuries of unbridled pursuit of profit that has caused the problem and that they should use their vast accumulated wealth to solve it. Instead, they do everything they can to accumulate more wealth,

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Alex Ates Haywood

After 20 years in finance I realized it was all a lie. Now I'm trying to figure out what 'it' is. Human being tired of being lied to.