For many of us, Christmas conjures up “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens, a tale of society’s moral obligation to provide for those in need, with Scrooge’s character embodying the selfishness, heartlessness and indifference of that era’s (mid-19th century) upper-class. Sound familiar?
We’ve referred to this Scrooge-like behavior as excessive wealth disorder, but I recently came across another term for it: “sociopathic greed.” AI sums it up this way: “Sociopathic greed describes an extreme, remorseless pursuit of wealth, power, or possessions, characterized by a profound lack of empathy, disregard for rules, and viewing others as tools for personal gain, often seen in individuals with Antisocial Personality Traits who exploit systems and people for self-interest, leading to destructive outcomes for society. It’s less about normal ambition and more about an innate drive to dominate, often thriving in systems that reward such behavior.”
If one thought the wealth gap between Ebenezer Scrooge and the mistreated Bob Cratchit was vast, the difference between the “haves” and “have-nots” in 2025 is enough to make Charles Dickens’ head spin. 2025 saw displays of wealth as never before in our lifetimes: think back on the overflow of billionaires at Trump’s inauguration, gold-plated everything in the White House, the Bezos wedding, Musk’s trillion-dollar pay package, to name just a few examples!
Shamefully, as billionaires’ wealth continues to skyrocket (literally) at levels unparalleled in all human history (depending on which source you go to, approximately 1000 billionaires in the US, with $8 trillion), so have the number of Americans struggling to get by. To fuel the billionaire’s tax breaks, the cost of basic goods goes up while government benefits for food and medical care are reduced. According to Feeding America, 47 million Americans, including 13 million children, face food insecurity. Newsweek reports that almost two-thirds of all working Americans are living paycheck to paycheck.
For most Americans, 2025 has been one long terrifying nightmare, thanks to this President, his handlers and his sycophantic enablers. Reflecting on our modern day Scrooges in a piece in The Nation, The Christmas Narrative Is About Charity and Love, Not Greed and Self-Dealing, John Nichols quotes Pope Leo: “the illusion of happiness derived from a comfortable life pushes many people towards a vision of life centered on the accumulation of wealth and social success at all costs, even at the expense of others and by taking advantage of unjust social ideals and political-economic systems that favor the strongest….(W)e paradoxically see the growth of a wealthy elite, living in a bubble of comfort and luxury, almost in another world compared to ordinary people.”
But the article also quotes Pope Francis, who succinctly said it all: “It is often precisely the wealthiest who oppose the realization of social justice or integral ecology out of sheer greed.”
It took visits on Christmas Eve from Jacob Marley and the spirits of Christmas Past, Present, and Future for Ebenezer Scrooge to face up to his moral responsibilities. In a year in which America has been haunted by the ghosts of 1918 (pandemic), 1929 (market crash),1968 (racial injustice), 2008 (market crash), 2020 (pandemic) and now 2025, there is something inherently wrong with the collective indifference of those fortunate enough to be in the 0.1% of society, refusing to support those less fortunate at levels proportionate to their unprecedented wealth.
The S&P 500, a reasonable gauge for how much money the ultra-rich are making, has now risen an average of close to 13% for the past ten years, and yet these greedy bastards billionaires – with a very few exceptions such as MacKenzie Scott – continue to give at an average rate of less than 1% of their wealth, hoarding the remaining 12%. For what?
At a minimum, we hope you’ll join us in demanding that America’s ultra-rich and largest private foundations give more, voluntarily perhaps, but ultimately through government mandate to support more and more Americans just trying to make ends meet. But philanthropy does not a good billionaire make. It is still autocratic, and often downright dangerous (consider the charitable support for the Heritage Foundation that brought us Project 2025 or the Federalist Society that brought us an anti-democratic, anti-women Supreme Court).
My wish for the Christmas Future is that as a matter of policy and morality, we tax and shame greed to undo the concentration of wealth and power in the hands of the few to create shared prosperity and self-government of, by and for the people. Rest assured, the Extreme Wealth Center and Tax the Greedy Billionaires and their allies will be doing their part to defeat the greed-is-good propaganda undergirding today’s obscene wealth inequality and authoritarianism.
Ultimately, however, it will be up to voters – and the media, nonprofits and others educating and mobilizing them – to demand free elections and elect leaders (there are far too few of them in Congress now) willing to stand up to greed.
If we are to put an end to our national–and international–nightmares, we must address greed not just to increase charitable giving, but also to address affordability concerns, improve our health and education outcomes, restore our democracy and trust in our fellow Americans, and protect our environment. There are primary elections starting in just a few months, and a national election, a referendum, in November. Make your voices heard. And perhaps we can make greed a thing of the Christmas Past.
Here’s wishing you a peaceful, healthy, and meaningful new year.