I believe in America.
My journey to becoming a Patriotic Millionaire starts with that simple sentence. I love my country, and I always have. I am very grateful to live here and I am thankful for the opportunities this great nation has given me. I believe America is a special place and has a role to play as a beacon of freedom, free markets, and democracy for the world.
I also believe this country I love is in deep trouble. I think our democracy and our capitalist economy are in grave danger, and we need to act to save them before it is too late. The primary cause of the challenges facing our country come from a single cause: excessive wealth. The extreme concentration of wealth and power in a few hands enables corruption that undermines the integrity of our political process and the competitiveness of our markets. Wealthy individuals make donations to politicians that far exceed anything that could reasonably be considered the “free speech” that is the right of any regular voter. These huge contributions buy massive influence that dwarfs the impact of the votes of other citizens, and in the process corrupts the basic premise of democracy. Excessively wealthy individuals buy major media sources and use them to influence elections, and they use their wealth and power to gain unfair advantage in the marketplace–a tactic as old as capitalism itself, but turbocharged in the internet era. The wealthy and powerful have always sought to win not by cultivating free markets and perfect competition, but rather by establishing monopolies and limiting consumer choice so they can raise prices and extract value. We see this happening all around us.
This threat is relatively new. It was never something I thought about or was aware of when I was growing up. I learned about philosopher John Rawls and his concept of “the veil of ignorance” in college, but as I started my career in management consulting and later moved on to work at Hewlett Packard I didn’t think much about issues of inequality. But after the financial crisis of 2007 and its aftermath I started paying more attention. Over the last 15 years my wife and I have enjoyed our life in Silicon Valley and benefitted from the prosperity of the tech sector. But I have also had a ringside seat to watch extraordinary wealth be accumulated by a small number of very fortunate people. I have also watched those people ignore the society around them and those less fortunate. I have seen them use their wealth to undermine our capitalist economy and our democracy while enriching themselves and their friends. Rather than using their wealth, power, experience, and networks to help those around them and to improve our country, they choose to find new ways to make massive amounts of money even though they already have more than they could ever spend.
We need to do better. I believe we need to offer a living wage for all members of our society and significantly raise taxes on the wealthy to create a more just society, and to preserve our democracy and our economy. I am grateful to be part of the Patriotic Millionaires and work alongside my peers and colleagues to help save our great country and enable it to thrive for many, many years to come.
Scott Ellis was previously a management consultant at McKinsey & Company and also ran a supply chain analytics organization at Hewlett Packard. Over the last 15 years, he has founded and led several education nonprofit organizations, served on multiple nonprofit boards, and conducted his family’s philanthropic grantmaking. He has also provided consulting in strategy, operations, and finance to dozens of nonprofit CEOs.
Scott is available to speak to the media about excessive wealth and inequality.
To get in touch with Scott, please contact Emily McCloskey, Deputy Communications Director, at emily@patrioticmillionaires.org.