Are we talking about the entrepreneur who claims our oil, or our coal, or a nation’s lithium, or any non-renewable natural resource as his own, and dares the rest of us to consider it ours, too, without paying him hugely for “his” resources?

Are we talking about the airlines which appear to own the rush hour landing rights at busy airports and get to sell them to the highest bidder, just as if they created that value?

Are we talking about the media and communications companies who call the airwaves theirs, not ours, and sell slices they didn’t create at huge windfall prices?

Are we talking about the real estate magnates who claim the best blocks in our most vibrant cities, and pocket the land rent as well as the building rent, and then generously plant tulips or fund libraries or hospitals, and are treated as self-made men and women?

Alaska actually has taken some steps in the right direction in this regard, collecting some of the rent related to natural resources and using it to fund government and investing it to provide an annual income for every Alaska citizen. The income Gini in Alaska is lower than in most of the rest of the US as a result.

Leona Helmsley was describing structure, not evasion, when she asserted that “we don’t pay taxes. The little people pay taxes.”

Are those the entrepreneurs you mean?

I would argue the ability to gain wealth over a lifetime is more indicative of “the well being and standard of living of its citizens.” Most of us started out with very little and by the age of 40 can’t figure out how we lived that way. What made it easier was the knowledge that if we worked hard, we could live a pretty good life – IMHO.