How much is enough? Let’s reevaluate the ethics of extreme wealth in America: Justice B. Hill

CLEVELAND, Ohio — The stock market hit all-time highs in the past year, so I know those who invested heavily on Wall Street are getting richer and richer. I don't begrudge their prosperity. I'm certain they've earned it.

Yet, how big a fortune is too big?

Are the wealthiest among us too preoccupied with accumulating dollars that they've forgotten they can't spend every cent?

The nine richest Americans have a combined worth of over $1 trillion. Blink, and the richest of those nine might have $500 billion alone soon.

I'm certain he won't do much civic good with most of it, but couldn't his money do considerable good now if he put half of it into the hands of people who wouldn't just sit on it?

When is enough, enough?

I've thought about that question since a friend shared a story that John Bogle, the late founder of Vanguard, once told about novelist Kurt Vonnegut . Bogle's story should make everybody think about what is enough:

At a party given by a billionaire on Shelter Island, Kurt Vonnegut informs his pal, Joseph Heller , that their host, a hedge fund manager, had made more money in a single day than Heller had earned from his wildly popular novel Catch-22 over its whole history. Heller responds, "Yes, but I have something he will never have ... enough.

Enough. I was stunned by the simple eloquence of the word — stunned for two reasons; first, because I have been given so much in my own life and, two, because Joseph Heller couldn't have been more accurate. ...

Our appetite for wealth goes unsated. We gorge on more, more, more like a hog at a feeding trough. They eat to their fill and then eat more, more, more.

A man worth a $1 billion will have enough money to last him his lifetime and his children's lifetimes. A $1 billion worth is generational wealth, so is $500 million. Couldn't some of those millions help others?

The United States has more than 800 billionaires . Most of them white; most of them men. They use their wealth to pry open doors that are closed to most of us; they use their wealth to reward those whose influence they seek.

Their America contrasts starkly with my America, which wouldn't bother me much at all if the uber-rich weren't so ruthless in using the money they do have to earn a greater and greater advantage.

When is enough, enough?

Right now.

It's enough because the lowest people on the socioeconomic rung can't keep pace with inflation; it's enough because those same people don't have access to deals that might fatten their portfolios; it's enough when the poor have similar aspirations as the rich.

That's the real American dream, isn't it?

I realize extraordinary wealth comes with its problems, but I'd live with those problems if I sat on $1 billion. I don't need $1 billion, however, to feel like I'm satisfied with life.

Like Heller, I have enough — more than enough. I don't have a Catch-22 in my prose. I'm all right with that, too. What I do have is happiness and genuine friendships, which a bestseller can't buy.

Now, I wouldn't turn down wealth like this. Who would? But if the choice is between that and sharing it with others, I'd pick sharing.