My neighborhood basketball court’s rim might be too rigid, but it’s more fun on the daily than any hedge funder’s private court, and it’s free—or, rather, part of the commonwealth, the fabric that bonds society together.

I love playing basketball. And as a boy I might have occasionally wished I had my own full-sized basketball court, right in my house. Wouldn’t that be cool!?

So I never forgot how lonely it looked (and sounded), on a MTV Cribs tour of some rich guy’s house, when he showed off his indoor basketball court in his vast house. The court was empty, echoing, desolate.

My neighborhood basketball court’s rim might be too rigid, but it’s more fun on the daily than any hedge funder’s private court, and it’s free—or, rather, part of the commonwealth, the fabric that bonds society together.

That MTV Cribs scene was a real moment of getting that fame and wealth can leave you…even more lonely.

The American Dream, for that matter, isn’t about greed. Those who think so have warped their own lives and our country’s ever-enticing, imperfect but famous promise.

The American Dream, fundamentally, is about the opportunity to follow one’s passions & fulfill them. About merit over inherited wealth. About hard work over entrenched power.

Opportunity is about community, equality, education and joy well-earned—greed is about selfishness, hate and loneliness.

So let’s share our promise, and in so doing realize it more fully. Let’s invest in education, not tax cuts for the rich.

As they say, “If you are more fortunate than others, build a longer table, not a higher fence.”

That’s true joy. And that’s true wealth.

Image.