Fortune
Forging the Silver spoon
The first of the Kennedy wealth was made by P. J. Kennedy when, after dropping out of school and saving money working on the docks in Boston Harbor, he bought a saloon. He soon opened a second establishment then started his own whiskey importing business. By the time he died he had amassed significant stocks in coal and banks and an expensive house on the East Boston waterfront. His son, Joseph P. Kennedy Sr., took the small fortune given to him by his father and procedure to multiply it many fold in the stock market. It is also widely believed, though not proven, that during the prohibition he continued his fathers alcohol businesses. According to Chandler, “Joe Kennedy became filthy rich from the bootlegging (he was already well off but the booze put him in a new category) he immediately invested in a wide variety of industries, especially film studios … The ownership of film studios had a side benefit of access to and control over young actresses which Joe took full advantage of” he continues to mention that Joe kept Gloria Swanson, a huge star at the time, as a concubine for years. Additionally Joe Kennedy married Rose Fitzgerald, the daughter of John F. Fitzgerald, and this allowed him to amass even more money. In 1957, when Fortune magazine published its first list of the richest American, it placed Joseph somewhere between the ninth and sixteenth richest persons in the United States with the equivalent of $1.74 billion–3.49 billion today.
Passing the Torch
The Kennedys have been wealthy ever since. They longer needed to grow their fortune but instead focussed on perpetuating it. Techniques for this perpetuating include continually marrying into other rich families powerful families, like the Bouviers, Onassis’, and Schwarzeneggers, and avoiding spending. When normal people come into money they tend to buy houses or cars and live extravagantly, but that is how to squander a fortune. Chandler tells us that “rich people stay rich because they don't touch the capital, the
investment fund … In the traditional European and America rich and upper middle class families there was always a bunch of money put aside as capital; it was used for investment and no other purpose. You did not touch the capital even if the roof was falling off your house. If your investments were successful (which they usually were as rich people could purchase political power just like they do today) you could skim off the surplus for luxuries, but you did not touch the base fund,” and the Kennedys are the pinnacle of this. To this day, while individual Kennedys are inheriting less than they used to, the entire family’s net worth continues to grow because of this strategy.
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While P. J. Kennedy may epitomizes the (slightly liquor soaked) American Dream, the rest of his family don’t embody that ideology at all. Joseph P. Kennedy was born with a silver spoon that he managed to turn to platinum but the remainder of the Kennedys did nothing but maintain and perpetuate their wealth. However it is worth noting though that every politically active Kennedy has supported the poor politically in classic neo-liberal form. Regardless it is apparent that the Kennedys will never let go of their fortune. This ensures that the capitol will pass to the next generation and guarantees the dynasty isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. We will have Kennedys in power for decades to come.
