So here’s a question for those like Zohran Mamdani and Alexander Ocasio Cortez, who so passionately rail against the rich: do they include themselves in the very group they constantly malign for their wealth?

Are they entitled to their possessions? What exactly does “rich” mean according to Mr. Mamdani? Does he look at Bernie Sanders, with his four houses and millions in the bank, and see the same villain he urges others to hate? Should he be able to use the force of the state to take one of Bernie’s houses and give it to some poor homless person who needs it more than Bernies does. Is Bernie Sanders one of these evil millionaires? Is Bernie Sanders entitled to his millions? What has he done that is of greater value than the millionaires and billionaires he and his allies so relentlessly attack?

This is the grand hypocrisy of the class-warrior politician: to be entitled to their own privilege while casting it as a sin in others. Why is Mamdani, along with all the other Democrat millionaires in Congress, entitled to their fortunes while simultaneously castigating others for having theirs?

These politicians are playing the public for fools. Their rhetoric isn’t designed to uplift; it’s designed to inflame. They contribute nothing of substance, instead appealing to the worst instincts of envy and resentment. They tell people that what others have should be condemned, except, of course, when it comes to their own wealth and privilege.

At its core, their philosophy is built on envy and entitlement: a creed that measures its worth not by what it has built, but by what it wishes to take. It is a politics of division, not progress, and it thrives on resentment rather than responsibility.

That is why we have to fight this sentiment wherever it appears. We must teach young people the values of hard work, perseverance, and personal responsibility. We must stand up against the corrosive idea that success is something to be punished, and instead celebrate that success, not as a crime to be punished, but a triumph to be celebrated.

Even Scripture warns us against this destructive mindset: “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house… or anything that belongs to your neighbor” (Exodus 20:17). The Tenth Commandment makes it clear that envy is not a virtue but a vice that erodes the soul and corrodes society. This directive from the finger of God is a bedrock of a functional society that rejects covetousness, looking at what others have and imagining it should be ours. We must choose creation over complaint and learn the profound satisfaction of earning one’s place in the world, instead of the bitter emptiness that comes from demanding what others have earned through ther own efforts. “Let us reserve our contempt for true poisons of the soul like resentment, grievance, and jealousy.”