Eat, Sleep, Work, Consume, Die

Hey, life now is no different than the early 1850's - ya eat, sleep, work, consume, and die.

Civilization took a definite nose dive when the merchant princes grew ascendant at the expense of the artists and thinkers; when the notion of liberté, égalité, fraternité gave way to "I've got mine; screw you" (an attitude that existed in Voltaire's day, too, you might recall, with unfortunate results for the blue bloods). In the Big Picture, the dead white guys -- Rousseau, Thoreau, Mill -- cared a lot more about your well-being than the live ones like Gates or Jobs or Ellison ever will.

Though for what it's worth, at least Gates Sr has spoken out for the Estate Tax: Dozens of the Wealthy Join to Fight Estate Tax Repeal (more search results).