Shohei Ohtani, Los Angeles Dodgers batting star, was hoodwinked out of about 16 million dollars by his Japanese interpreter. I don’t blame him for being in this mess. His interpreter is a thief and should be punished accordingly.

What also is clear is that until someone brought this to Ohtani’s attention, he was unaware that the 16 million dollars had gone missing.

The whole proposition of this type of capitalism is that the individual is a better steward of the money than the government. But time and again, we see rich people getting ripped off by scoundrels, covering up their crimes, using it on profligate expenditures that help no one including the indulgent individual or, in the best case scenario, putting it away in the bank and collecting interest. We are told that the best way to enrich everyone else is to let the rich spend their money as they wish and a rising tide will lift all boats.

The problem here is that the rich too often are spending money on things that benefit no one other than themselves. Personally, I don’t mind giving a tax break to businesses that reinvest their profits back into the business. There is some hope that this reinvested money will get into the hands of the employees of the company. But, seriously, 16 million gone without noticing it means that the Feds could have taken it in taxation and Ohtani wouldn’t have missed it either. His rich happy life would have continued to be quite happy and still rich.