Being rich isn't a sin, but . . .

All sorts of us get rich. Some by inheriting money we don't deserve. Others by inventing something that the rest of us can't get enough of. Others by stealth and even crime. Or by becoming a rock star. A few of us even win the lottery.


There are lots of ways, in our society, to get rich. And just being rich doesn't make us either good or bad. It's what we do with our newfound wealth that counts.

Andrew Carnegie endowed libraries (all in his name, but that's another subject), and other billionaires have built wonderful public works. Even today, Bill Gates and his wife Melinda have a foundation that gives millions to stamping out malaria in Africa. (Also in their names.)

But what if you're new to riches and have only now just figured out that you're worth not just a lot of money but a whole lot more than you ever expected? What are you supposed to do with that extra money, the money you know you can't spend no matter how hard you try?

I have liberal friends who think that anything you make more than what you need to live on should be directed back to the community to help those who struggle just to get by. Give to the local food bank, the United Way, to any and all charities who need your help. How can you not?

But part of me says, I earned it, and I get to spend it any way I want. Right?

Right up to a point. You/I earned it, but we're part of a bigger enterprise called city or county or nation. We're part of a web of people who work for us and support us and sometimes need our help. All those people who clean our houses and our schools, and the courthouse, not to mention the women's room at our local gym (or the men's). The trash haulers, who have kids who need to have the same quality of education as our kids have. Don't we owe them, too?

Wealth is neither a sin nor a virtue. If you've been fortunate enough to make more money than you think you can spend in your lifetime, and if you've set your kids up with trust accounts that will pay them a certain amount once they reach a certain age, and if you have as big a house as you and your mate can possibly keep clean without significant paid help, and if you still find yourself with lots of money left over . . . maybe it's time to think of who your extra dollars might benefit.

Begin by checking with the charities in your town. The agency that shields battered women from their violent exes is a good place to start, as it usually involves kids, who are totally innocent, and those places never have enough money. Animals that have been abandoned and are almost surely condemned to death -- what we used to call "the pound" -- is another place to put your surplus money. Keep those animals alive a little longer, get them healthy, and someone may want to adopt them. And of course almost all our cities harbor homeless people who may be mentally disturbed but may also just be guys who lost their minimum wage job and can't afford rent. Whole families end up on our streets. Should anybody's children have to live in carboard boxes? There are agencies in every city and town that will be glad to take your money.

I applaud Bill Gates and others who are trying to stamp out diseases in foreign countries, but I wish the truly rich among us -- those who have more than they can possibly spend in a lifetime and whose families are already provided for -- would divert at least part of their wealth to the neediest among us, right here in America, which is not the promised land to lots of us.

I'm not particularly religious but I do remember my Sunday school lessons. Jesus said that "Whatsoever you do unto the least of these, you do unto me."

It's not a sin to be rich, but it may be a sin to die rich.

If you're rich and you aren't a poetry fan, I would recommend two: "Ozymandias" by Shelley (written 200 years ago) and "Richard Cory" by Edwin Arlington Robinson.

If they don't shame you into sharing, nothing will.