Before we get too far from Piers Morgan’s debut interview with Oprah Winfrey, there was an interesting moment that may be indicative of something larger in our political and cultural landscape. At the risk of reading too much into what was clearly meant as a light-hearted comment on her wealth, let’s look at the television mogul’s comments about her net worth.I have a simple-minded saying: taxes are the price of civilization. If a billionaire feels "oppressed" by taxes, they should try living in "tax free" Somalia. I doubt Oprah could hang on to her billions in gun-toting Somalia. The local warload would drop by and insist on "sharing the wealth". No taxes, but something worse: extortion, graft, fraud, petty crime, deadly violence, etc. You would think Oprah would be so happy about getting to live in America where she can make big bucks so quickly and be blowing kisses to the government and writing out tax cheques while singing "Happy Days are Here Again!".
Morgan raised the topic of her $2.7 billion net worth. “I’m not sitting around counting it,” Winfrey said dismissively. To which Morgan teased, I’ll bet you know exactly how much you’re worth, Oprah. Proud and disarmed, Winfrey confessed that indeed she wasn’t sitting around counting her money because she already had counted it.
To show what a watchful eye she has, the discussion then moved to how she still “signs” all checks over $100,000–and you’d be surprised how many of those she was writing. But, the daytime star confessed, as much as she liked writing six-figure checks for talented employees there was one check she hated to write. That was her taxes. She and her accountants even had an elaborate ceremony to take some of the sting out of the occasion.
This was a relatively innocuous statement. Who likes to pay taxes? And the extremely wealthy seem to dislike it even more the less it impacts their day-to-day living. However, during that same interview Winfrey made it clear that it was her life’s mission to help others improve their own lives. That’s her mission, the source of her worldly success and the core of her brand which she described as ‘love.’ “My brand is love,” she told Morgan and corrected him when he tried to cavil.
In contemporary life, it is hard to find a figure who could better embody the term Liberal. Here is a woman who harks back to her childhood in the “apartheid state” of Mississippi; talks freely about her teenage pregnancy and the ramifications it would have had on the rest of her life; still self-identifies as a school teacher and describes Barack Obama as having made no mistakes during his first two years in office.
Oh, and let’s not forget that she has acknowledged being in a long-term non-traditional emotional relationship. She ticks every box on the Liberal checklist. And even she doesn’t like to pay taxes!
It may seem remote now. But there was a time when the government was viewed as an essential actor in improving lives, that paying taxes was part of the commonweal. Let’s not suggest that anyone is enthusiastic about getting taxed. Nevertheless, one could draw a line from one’s own tax bill to the necessary services government provides. Without taxation, there is no solution to the crisis of public debt.
It makes no sense to me that a "philanthropist" like Oprah enjoys giving her money away, but when it comes to paying the price for civilization, she grumbles and drags her feet. She should just pretend that Uncle Sam is a needy person and sit down an write cheques to help pool old Uncle Sam get through these rough times.
Here's Marion Maneker's parting shot:
When the most visible persons opt out of viewing government as the hub of the commonweal, it is hardly the surprising that the rest of us should feel the same way. With the exception of Warren Buffet, few have acknowledged a connection between their own taxes and the robustness of the government. Showing, like many of the billionaire’s other quaint foibles, that he is a vestige of a different era.
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