I would like to dedicate this column to the rich. More pertinently, I wish to thank them. Simply put, they make my life more pleasant. They make this country worthy of its dream.

How does someone become rich? The Dave Thomases of the world demonstrate the greatness of American economics. I like them. I admire them. I want to be them. And it scares me that we are starting to tell the next generation that these individuals are somehow evil, that they are at fault for all the ills in American society. Personally, I believe they are everything that is right and good in our society.

Dave Thomas was a high school dropout. This story’s pretty well known, so I’ll skip to the fun part. Having created Wendy’s from the ground up, Dave realized he, the American dream, was a role model. So he went back to high school, got his GED, and was voted “Most Likely To Succeed” at his senior prom (rumored, couldn’t confirm).

Also, being adopted, Dave Thomas created the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption. I lack the space to document his other achievements, but they include a stint in the military and some brilliant business insights.

But what about the stories that aren’t rags-to-riches? Bill Gates was not adopted. In fact, he started rich.

But rather than decking out his “crib” for mindless luxury and entertainment, Gates went on to become one of the greatest innovators and businessmen of all time.

He gives enormous sums of money to charities and even started his own, the Bill ‘ Melinda Gates Foundation, whose massive undertakings have improved everything from infant mortality rates in third-world countries to educational opportunities for impoverished neighborhoods right here in the U.S. What the U.S. government has never succeeded in doing, regardless of how high they boost taxes – getting inner-city schools the equipment, funding and computers they need – Bill Gates has begun as a private initiative.

These projects are only a sample of the philanthropic work being done in the US by its richest members. The work has much left to do, but that doesn’t change the fact that these individuals are doing more than any government bureaucracy could hope to accomplish.

I also admire the rich for more personal reasons. They prove what it means to succeed. They do not make their fortune and then spend it recklessly. (I disown “musicians” and “entertainers” at this point, obviously.) They continue to invest smartly, to run their businesses effectively, and to not only make more money, but make money for more people.

Of all the people that have complained about rich children being able to “write their own ticket” into Harvard or Yale, stop and think for a second: they’re going to Harvard or Yale. They are not lazy, nor are they bums taking advantage of society. They are working harder than the vast bulk of this country, and the result is their just reward.

To anyone who is opposed to “tax cuts for the rich,” please stop thinking that slogan is clever. Of course the rich benefit from tax cuts. But so does the person making $16,000 a year, who (thanks to President Bush) gets to keep a little more of that all-too-scarce money.

More pertinently, the rich have earned their money, just like the rest of us. Bill Gates owes me nothing.

Besides, what possible utility might come from higher taxes? People argue that money needs to be redistributed, so that more people might be happy. They have this image in their minds of Bill Gates diving into a pit of gold like Scrooge from Duck Tales.

Instead, that money is kept in banks, and it is that money that people like me will access for home loans, car loans and education loans that make life more immediately enjoyable for all of us.

I thank them for their wealth, because they do share it with me.

I just happen to not be so crass as to demand it as my right. Simply put, I deserve nothing by sole merit of my existence.

Reagan once said the GOP was “the party that wants to see an America in which people can still get rich.” One of my favorite authors, Ayn Rand, once explained of those who wished to destroy American economics: “Do not raze all shrines; that will frighten men. Instead, enshrine mediocrity, and your shrines are razed.”

We have stigmatized our greatest workers and thinkers and glorified “the masses.” We are supposed to be a country that values the individual.

Instead, by advocating for grotesque simplifications as “the middle class” and “the impoverished,” we threaten to raze the American Dream to the gutters. I hope to be rich one day.