People of value.

One of the things I hear all the time is that some people make too much money. 

I suppose that the argument would hold some water if we were talking about people who made it dishonestly or by not producing something and just shuffling paper.

A while back I heard someone say that Henry Kaiser profiteered during WW2. Maybe he did, maybe he didn't. What he did do was build ships. Lots and lots of ships.

The ships must have been worth what he charged for them because they were paid for. Another thing, too. They likely were more expensive, too because there was a lot of overtime involved. The yard ran 24/7/365 as there was a war on.

A big part of Kaiser's success was that he popped ths ships out fast. They were needed.

The biggest headache generals face is getting things moved. Logistics is the key to victory. You can have the best troops in the world and without the supplies needed the quality of the troops is moot. 

Kaiser managed to speed up production of ships so that they were sliding down the ways at a rate unheard of prior to the war. He was innovative.

I suppose there are people out there that will say that the ships he made were obsolete the day they hit the water. They're probably right. They were of an older design. However they could be made fast and relatively inexpensively. 

Another fortune that was made during WW2 was made by Andrew Jackson Higgins, another boat builder.

Higgins made landing craft and motor torpedo (PT) boats. He's famous for his landing craft. The versitile 'Higgins Boats' hauled troops and equipment from transports to the beach. Their design made it so they could beach them, discharge men and cargo and pull themselves off the beach for repeated trips.

Higgins at one point was set up shop on the streets of New Orleans while his boatyard was being built. He also paid everyone the same regardless of race or sex. This was, at the time, somewhat unusual because often blacks and women were paid less money for the same job. Higgins didn't give a damn. As far as he was concerned, a boat builder was a boat builder.

These men made fortunes during the war and I suppose there were a lot of gripers that accused them of taking advantage of the situation to line their pockets.

The truth is that both of these guys earned every dime they made because they built the tools the arsenal of democracy needed to win the war.

Today one of the current game changers is Bill Gates and he has certainly made a fortune. He earned that fortune, too.

Bill Gates changed the very way we do a lot of things from business to communicate. He made things a lot easier, faster and comfortable for all of us.

Yet Gates, like Kaiser and Higgins, have detractors. The one I heard most recently is that "Bill Gates doesn't need all that money."

Well, maybe he doesn't but it's his. He earned it. It's as simple as that. 

Of course people don't seem to like it one bit when I point out that they don't need a 3 bedroom house or a car that will go faster than 65. When I suggest that they be forbidden to own these things they indignantly tell me that it's their money and they earned the right to own the house or car.

That's when I point out that Gates has earned his money, too.

When they say, "That's different," I point out that the only thing different about it is who is having their money taken away from them. The truth generally quiets them down.

The truth of the matter is that these guys have made so much money because they are worth it.

Generally the gripers don't have what it takes to run a shipbuilding business or a computer company like Microsoft because if they did they would be.

As for me, I'm just a dumb old sailor.

To find out why the blog is pink just cut and paste this: http://piccoloshash.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-feminine-side-blog-stays-pink.html NO ANIMALS WERE HARMED IN THE WRITING OF TODAY'S ESSAY