“Run for your life from any man who tells you that money is evil. That sentence is the leper’s bell of an approaching looter. So long as men live together on earth and need means to deal with one another — their only substitute, if they abandon money, is the muzzle of a gun,” said Francisco in Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged.”

I have attempted to stay non-partisan in this column by giving equal space to the negatives of both the Republican and Democratic Parties. However, I must take issue with the current Democratic attacks on Mitt Romney’s time spent managing Bain Capital and the amount of money earned by the company.

Since when did making money become evil in America? Since when did returning a profit to your investors become immoral and a sin against society? It seems as if the mood of a growing majority of the country is deeply rooted in opposition of people making money.

The hypocrisy lies in the fact that making too much money or any money at all is only corrupt if you work for the wrong industries. For example, no one will deny that the Democratic Party hates the amount of profit made by the oil and gas industry. Ironically, the cellphone in the anti-oil individual’s pocket is made of petroleum-based products.

The oil and gas industry makes billions in profit every year. So does Apple, a computer company. Apple’s CEO made $378 MILLION in 2011 making him the highest earning CEO in America. The next wealthiest made a pitiful $78 million.

Is that too much money for the CEO of Apple? That depends on whom you ask because Apple stockholders are probably very happy with the CEO. The purchasers of Apple products don’t mind forking over $400 for their fourth iPhone that was assembled by underpaid employees overseas. So who is at fault: the CEO, the investor putting money into a good company or the customer who is buying the overpriced products?

When it comes to making money, large dollars usually send anti-capitalists into a panic, which is why I like to compare profit margins: Oil/Gas industry – 6 percent profit, McDonalds – 18 percent, Apple – 29 percent.

Making money is not bad when it is earned in a system based on the exchange of products and services. In the book “Atlas Shrugged,” the character Francisco speaks about the respect or hatred of money, “Let me give you a tip on a clue to men’s characters: the man who damns money has obtained it dishonorably; the man who respects it has earned it.”

The last bite…

The other day we had a LaPlace Lions Club Krewe DuMonde planning meeting. The LaPlace Lions Club is responsible for producing both the annual DuMonde Carnival Ball and Parade. At the meeting, Donna Flynn served up creamy red beans that were so fresh they were still in the pot on top of the stove! I didn’t eat it with rice because I am watching my figure — yeah right — and I wanted to leave room for a second bowl, which was better than the first! I give Donna Flynn’s red beans 4.5 out of 5 crumbs.

Buddy Boe, a resident of Garyville, owns a public relations and program management company and is well known on the local political (and food) scenes. His column appears Wednesdays in L’Observateur.