We Need Billionaires Who Do the Right Thing

Froma Harrop on Oct 23, 2025

I don't get politicians who rail against billionaires. There are all kinds of billionaires. Many got rich inventing products we hold dear. Others got rich doing societally useless things like inventing crypto meme coins. And some made their pile through corruption and crime.

This is about the good ones.

Hamdi Ulukaya made billions founding Chobani, a producer of high-quality yogurt. A Kurd born in Turkey, Ulukaya created jobs in struggling parts of the U.S. His factory in Twin Falls, Idaho, is now the largest yogurt production plant in the world. Ulukaya also promotes paying workers well.

Does anyone resent the estimated $11 billion that Steve Jobs had amassed when he died way back in 2011? The genius behind Apple created the coolest tech products for the masses.

Other billionaires are admirable because they don't go begging for tax cuts. Warren Buffett, the legendary investor with a net worth of $150 billion, famously said: "There's class warfare, all right, but it's my class, the rich class, that's making war, and we're winning."

Buffett once complained that he only paid 19% of his 2006 income while his office workers paid 33%. And he said it before Donald Trump further slashed his taxes through tax cuts for the richest few. That tax policy left ordinary Americans to foot the bill through shrinking programs and supercharged deficits.

Rich people who pay their taxes are the major source for safety net spending. I must repeat that Sweden has more billionaires per capita than the U.S., and they pay high taxes for public benefits. And after taxes, they are still unimaginably rich.

Which brings us to the subject of Mike Bloomberg, whose net worth is estimated at over $100 billion. Bloomberg made his fortune in finance and media. But he then served his city, New York, as the best mayor in memory. (First as a Republican, then as an independent, finally as a Democrat.)

Sen. Bernie Sanders is always hollering about "billionaires" this and "billionaires" that. It used to be millionaires until Sanders became one.

There was a memorable moment during a 2020 Democratic presidential debate, when Sanders asked candidate Bloomberg in his righteous gotcha voice, "Which tax haven do you have your home?"

Bloomberg answered: "New York City, thank you very much, and I pay all my taxes. And I'm happy to do it because I get something for it."

The above multi-billionaires all established charitable foundations. They have vowed to give much or nearly all their wealth to worthy causes.

Charles and David Koch built the enormous Koch Inc., based in Wichita, Kansas. Charles went on to support conservative and libertarian causes. David favored cultural landmarks, from the Smithsonian in Washington to the Metropolitan Museum in New York. And he has financed medical facilities in various places. His widow, Julia, continues the good deeds.

Alice Walton, heir to the Walmart fortune, donates to the arts, education and health care. There's now an Alice L. Walton School of Medicine in Bentonville, Arkansas, where Walmart is based.

There's no need to worship or envy any billionaire's assets. Many superrich people are depressed and lonely. (Thomas Lee, a private-equity mogul worth $2 billion, committed suicide in 2023.) Some billionaires are pitiful in their unquenchable need for showy mega-yachts, private islands and penthouses in the sky. And one can smirk at those who display their half-dressed female sex trophies, supposedly as a mark of their virility.

From a political standpoint, many on the far left and far right often mechanically link enormous wealth with destructive tendencies. Billionaires ought not be lumped into a despised class but judged for the deeds they do as individuals -- like the rest of us.

Follow Froma Harrop on X @FromaHarrop. She can be reached at fharrop@gmail.com. To find out more about Froma Harrop and read features by other Creators writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators webpage at www.creators.com.

----