Wealth is a wonderful thing. Private investment of capital improved the human condition beyond measure - medicine, automobiles, air conditioning, computers, airplanes, television and millions of other products and services that we take for granted each day. Humans freely acting and trading with each other for their own benefit created and continues to create this wealth.

Many people who benefited from free market capitalism seek to destroy it - through implementing or supporting price controls, subsidies, oppressive taxation and restrictions. They use the power of government to stifle human action and thus reduce wealth and opportunities for all. For example, John Kerry continues to support increases to the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards, which would force auto manufacturers to create cars that have unrealistically high fuel economies (he proposed a 35-mpg average for all vehicles by 2013). Yet his own private jet, speed boat and SUV are okay.

Ludwig von Mises explored this destructive mindset in The Anti-Capitalistic Mentality, specifically in the "The Communism of Broadway and Hollywood" chapter.

I listed only a few of the many wealthy politicians and celebrities who would like you and I to pay for their social and political goals while they fly around the world in their private jets...


Chardonnay Socialists

• "For the people" Democrat Politicians
  • John Kerry (D-Massachusetts)
  • Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas)
  • Ted Kennedy (D-Massachusetts)

• Hypocrite Celebrities
  • Ben Affleck
  • Bono
  • Rob Reiner
  • Martin Sheen
  • Barbra Streisand

• Red Capitalists
  • Ben & Jerry's

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"For the people" Democrat Politicians
[Top]

John Kerry (D-Massachusetts)
"I am going to ask America’s wealthiest people – those making over $200,000 a year – to pay the same fair share they paid under Bill Clinton."
- John Kerry's 2004 Presidential Campaign website, Kerry Seeks Tax Fairness for Hard Working Americans




• John Kerry's most recent Senate Financial Disclosure Report
  Read John Kerry's own signed financial disclosure report... Note that he has millions of dollars invested in those "evil" drug and oil companies. Maybe he should use some of that money for his socialist schemes...

• Kerry Backs Bush's $81.9 Bln War Spending Plan
  - February 15, 2005 [Reuters]

• Life of the Limousine Liberals: What is John Kerry's Wife (Teresa Heinz Kerry) Hiding?
  Kerry's wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, controls a vast fortune estimated by a Los Angeles Times study to be as great as $900 million to $3.2 billion. - Don Luskin, July 13, 2004 [Capitalism Magazine]

• The Kerry-Edwards Ticket: The Limousine Liberal and the Litigious Lawyer Unite
  People who will vote for candidates on the basis of election-year images, rather than bothering to find out the facts, perhaps deserve whatever officials they elect. - Thomas Sowell, July 9, 2004 [Capitalism Magazine]

• Rich Liberals
  Please, rich liberals: stay away from public office. I'm not as rich as you. I can't afford having you in power! - Michael J. Hurd, May 1, 2004 [Capitalism Magazine]

• Kerry's Class Warfare: "Working Families" vs. "The Privileged"
  In his victory speech at the Iowa caucus, John Kerry uttered a line that exquisitely captured a staple of his Leftist politics -- class warfare. "Count the cost that working families are paying while the privileged ride high and reap the rewards," he said. Yet Kerry's policies actually harm productive individuals and engender the worst form of privileged Americans. - Joseph Kellard, April 29, 2004 [Capitalism Magazine]

• Inside Kerry’s Character
  During his primary campaign, John Kerry traveled on private jets, ate lavish dinners with his ever-present and presumably loving spouse, was spared any criticism from his competitors and was lionized by a leftist media. - Joan Swirsky, April 29, 2004 [NewsMax.com]

• Kerry Says His 'Family' Owns SUV, Not He
  - April 23, 2004 [Guardian Unlimited]

• How Rich is John Kerry?
  We estimate his family fortune at $525 million, which would make him, if elected, the third-richest president ever. - Dan Ackman, February 16, 2004 [MSN Money]



Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas)
"After a decade of economic prosperity, the moral question remains: if we can’t address the persistent economic divide in our nation today, when can we?"
- Sheila Jackson Lee, November 11 [1999CPC Position Paper: Income Inequality 99-CPC3]


• Airline Makes Room for Lee
  - Bill Thomas, September 3, 2003 [The Hill]

• 'Black' hurricane names brewing swirl of dissent
  "All racial groups should be represented," Lee said, according to the Hill. She hoped federal weather officials "would try to be inclusive of African-American names." - Joe Kovacs, August 3, 2003 [WorldNetDaily.com]

• Sheila Jackson Lee, Limousine Liberal
  Does she think the ethics rules don't apply to her? - Sam Dealey, February 11, 2002 [The Weekly Standard]



Ted Kennedy (D-Massachusetts)
• Ted Kennedy: "I'm Handgun Control International"
  Like many affluent playboys who inherit their parents' money and never have to work for a living, Ted Kennedy believes that certain laws apply only to the "peasants," not to the wealthy elite. - [Stentorian.com]

• Ted Kennedy's Motives Questioned in Opposition to Wind Project
  One of the nation's most beautiful seaside resorts is the site of a battle over a wind power project that has drawn opposition from famous liberals like Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy and former CBS news anchorman Walter Cronkite. - Steve Brown, August 22, 2003 [Cybercast News Service]

• Massachusetts Senator a Classic Liberal Hypocrite
  The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, on July 17, ruled against a disgraceful and bullying appeal by Ted Kennedy to get his Republican opponent for the US Senate, African-American conservative Jack E. Robinson, removed from the ballot on a technicality. - Chuck Morse, July 24, 2000 [chuckmorse.com]

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Hypocrite Celebrities
[Top]

Ben Affleck
"I've been a Democrat all my life...I believe in a party that's going to work for working families, middle-income families and poor families, as opposed to one that cultivates a thinly veiled attempt to favor wealthy campaign contributors and friends."
- Ben Affleck, November 8, 2000 [Salon.com]


• Ben Affleck's New Addiction
  - December 2002 [MostBeautifulMan.com]



Bono
"Second of course we are looking for an increase in aid, of course we are - call it transitional money if you will, seed money if you want to… to re-ignite their economic engines - their people actually."
- Bono, at the Closing Ceremony of the African Development Bank meetings May 29, 2002


• Bono the Capitalist Exploiter
  Bono and his wife, Ali Hewson, have been traveling the globe endorsing their new clothing line, Edun. - Vedran Vuk and Tom DiLorenzo, April 5, 2007 [Mises]

• Apple launches new U2 iPod
  The special edition U2 40GB iPod will retail around $499 while the 60GB model will cost close to $599. - Mahendra Hora, October 26, 2004 [CoolTechZone]

• Liquid Assets: Bono's millions
  We reckon Bono can bank on a personal fortune totalling around £108 million - having earned around £26m of it from U2's songs. - August 1, 2004 [BBC]

• Bonomics and Third World Debt
  Bono and his friends in high places might ask themselves if each project, from irrigation dams to health clinics, would have been solvent had they been subject to market discipline. The problem is that the funds have entrenched the positions of Third World political leaders for whom market discipline is anathema. - Carl F. Horowitz, August 2002 [Mises]

• The Bono/O'Neill Magical Third World Tour
  - Larry Elder, June 15, 2002 [Capitalism Magazine]

• Bono and his band of bandits
  - Ilana Mercer, April 3, 2002 [WorldNetDaily]

• Bone-Headed Bono Is So Generous With Other People's Money
  There was no explanation why the millionaire limousine liberal Bono and the petition signers didn't give their own riches to the cause they so loudly support. - September 7, 2000 [NewsMax.com]



Rob Reiner
• Meathead Start
  Kids and smokers agree: Rob Reiner is a clear and present danger. - Tim Cavanaugh, August 22, 2002 [REASON]

• Tyke Hike
  Even if Reiner’s tax hike would substantially reduce underage smoking, this approach imposes a burden on all smokers, regardless of age, to deter a small minority who are not legally permitted to buy cigarettes in the first place. - Jacob Sullum, October 28, 1998 [REASON]



Martin Sheen
• Martin Sheen: Victim of Hollywood Status
  - Michael Moynihan, April 18, 2003 [Capitalism Magazine]

• The President of the Left
  No, he’s not president. Martin Sheen only plays one on TV. - Andrew Stuttaford, March 14, 2003 [National Review Online]



Barbra Streisand
"We must make concrete changes in our lifestyles to help solve this energy crisis and now is the time to do it."
- Barbra Streisand, A Call to Conserve [barbrastreisand.com]


• Malibu Babs: Snapshots Of An Eco-hypocrite
  People who live in 10,000-square-foot oceanfront mansions shouldn’t throw stones. - Michelle Malkin, June 4, 2003 [Jewish World Review]

• Streisand Sues Over Photograph of Her Coast Home on Web Site
  Barbra Streisand has filed a lawsuit against an amateur photographer, claiming he is violating her privacy by displaying a picture of her bluff-top Malibu estate on a Web site designed to document erosion and excessive development along California's 1,150-mile coastline. - Kenneth R. Weiss, May 30, 2003 [LA Times]

• Funny Lady
  Barbra Streisand, the reigning Self-Important Grande Dame of Full-of-Herself, shot off a memo Sept. 25 to Congressman Dick Gephardt demanding the Democrats take the "offensive” when it came to Republicans and the War on Terror. - Tammy Bruce, October 2, 2002 [NewsMax.com]

• Queen Barbra addresses the serfs
  The first thing so many of us here in flyover country (blessedly far away from the ministrations of the queen) would like to know is this: how does Barbra Streisand intend to change her lifestyle to accommodate the California energy crisis? - Shelley McKinney, June 25, 2001 [Enter Stage Right]

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Red Capitalists
[Top]

Ben & Jerry's
• Ben & Jerry's "Lick Global Warming"
  Because somehow Ben & Jerry's business does not generate pollution...