How to become rich like Socialist Bernie Sanders
How to become rich like Socialist Bernie Sanders

It is good to be a Socialist in America…where you can complain about the sins of capitalism while living it up and raking in all that dough.

The saying goes that “there’s sucker born every minute,” to which I say, “There’s an ingrate born every hour.”

Case in point – Bernie Sanders. For you, he wishes Soviet-style collectivism. Not for him our system of free enterprise.

But wait! Make way, stand back, as he rushes to the window to cash in his chips with both hands.

Yes, Bernie Sanders, running for president on Stalin’s platform…Bernie Sanders is a millionaire.

He said so for The New York Times and CNN where he announced that he will be revealing his tax forms, which will show him to be a rich man…and he is not giving it back.

Bernie Sanders. For you, he wishes Soviet-style collectivism. Not for him our system of free enterprise.
Did he win the lottery?

No, books, he says, and I quote: “I wrote a bestselling book. If you write a bestselling book, you can be a millionaire, too.”

Yes, we’ve seen the ads – “You too can be a rich and famous author…”

If only it were that easy. For some, yes. If your name is Hillary Clinton or Michelle Obama, count on a huge payday from the advance.

Those are books written by people who can’t write for people who can’t read – or for suckers who think a cynical self-serving political memoir is great literature.

They will buy anything from a big name, even if it means being fleeced by a huckster like Bernie whose life and times as an anti-Israel, self-loathing Jew we already know.

We don’t need a book to remind us.

Bernie may be a quotable savant in BDS circles, but I don’t think he qualifies as a celeb who rates top dollar.  

I’ve checked the figures and not one of his three books come close to ringing up big sales. Okay, you say, maybe he got the money up front. But millions?

Could be. Even as we’ve been speaking, another sucker was born.

I only know what I know and it’s that most writers don’t get rich. I’ve written a number of bestsellers and like most writers who write for the joy of it and for the need of it – I mean writers in it for the love of words rather than the love of money – it’s a struggle. But even if you hit it with a bestseller, it’s still tough.

That’s because by the time you’ve finally scored, you’ve spent 15 years on rejections and piled up a mile of overdue bills.

All you’re doing is catching up. From one book to another it’s the lean years to maybe a fat year, if you get lucky.

That goes for most writers…the true ones, the ones who, page after page, bleed open their hearts for their readers, or upon the hope that somebody’s out there.

Most writers don’t get lucky. The refrain I go with in “Indecent Proposal,” is simply, “Luck is everything.” Still true. I should know and what I know I covered in “Slot Attendant.”

Don’t blame real writers for resenting frauds like Bernie who come trampling on our territory. There aren’t enough readers to make everyone a “millionaire.”

Remember this – good readers are as rare as good writers…and that every time you hold a book in your hands, realize you hold the writer’s life in your hands.

New York-based bestselling American novelist Jack Engelhard writes regularly for Arutz Sheva.

He is the author of the international book-to-movie bestseller “Indecent Proposal.” His latest is the newsroom drama “News Anchor Sweetheart.”  His Inside Journalism thriller, “The Bathsheba Deadline,” is being prepared for the movies. Contemporaries have hailed him “The last Hemingway, a writer without peer, and the conscience of us all.” Website: www.jackengelhard.com