Well, since I have seen you belittle and malign the rich repeatedly, and somehow the Kennedys escaped that, I would say that you are giving them a pass.
Shouldn't they pay extremely high taxes to carry the weight for the poor?
Yes, the Kennedys should pay higher taxes. I doubt they would disagree. But either you don't understand my beliefs on wealth or maybe you just can't comprehend nuance. I have nothing against people making lots and lots of money. I have said this before. There is one qualification...you can't get rich by making other people poor. That is what many corporations are doing today. Every polluter is getting rich by making other people poor.
When President Kennedy said these words, he was including his own family; "with privilege goes responsibility"
"Many years ago, Woodrow Wilson said, what good is a political party unless it is serving a great national purpose? And what good is a private college or university unless it is serving a great national purpose? The Library being constructed today, this college, itself--all of this, of course, was not done merely to give this school's graduates an advantage, an economic advantage, in the life struggle. It does do that. But in return for that, in return for the great opportunity which society gives the graduates of this and related schools, it seems to me incumbent upon this and other schools' graduates to recognize their responsibility to the public interest.
Privilege is here, and with privilege goes responsibility. And I think, as your president said, that it must be a source of satisfaction to you that this school's graduates have recognized it. I hope that the students who are here now will also recognize it in the future. Although Amherst has been in the forefront of extending aid to needy and talented students, private colleges, taken as a whole, draw 50 percent of their students from the wealthiest 10 percent of our Nation. And even State universities and other public institutions derive 25 percent of their students from this group. In March 1962, persons of 18 years or older who had not completed high school made up 46 percent of the total labor force, and such persons comprised 64 percent of those who were unemployed. And in 1958, the lowest fifth of the families in the United States had 4 1/2 percent of the total personal income, the highest fifth, 44 1/2 percent. There is inherited wealth in this country and also inherited poverty. And unless the graduates of this college and other colleges like it who are given a running start in life--unless they are willing to put back into our society, those talents, the broad sympathy, the understanding, the compassion--unless they are willing to put those qualities back into the service of the Great Republic, then obviously the presuppositions upon which our democracy are based are bound to be fallible."
Remarks at Amherst College, October 26, 1963