In How Much Land Does A Man Need Leo Tolstoy offers a lesson in the downside of greed and overreach. I’ll summarize the key point of the story for those who haven’t read it. (Note: spoiler alert.)
The story follows a Russian peasant named Pahom. He buys some land then trades up for larger and larger holdings. He ultimately makes the deal of his life with the Bashkirs, a distant tribe in the steppes. They sell him as much land as he can walk around in a day for a set price. All he must do is to walk around the perimeter of the land he wants in one day, from sun up to sun down, and it will be his. The only stipulation is that he must return to the place from which he starts before the sun sets. He gets carried away as he walks through ever more irresistible tracts until, seized by terror, he realizes he has gone too far. He may not get back in time.
“What shall I do,” he thought again, “I have grasped too much, and ruined the whole affair. I can’t get there before the sun sets.” And this fear made him still more breathless. Pahom went on running, his soaking shirt and trousers stuck to him, and his mouth was parched. His breast was working like a blacksmith’s bellows, his heart was beating like a hammer, and his legs were giving way as if they did not belong to him. Pahom was seized with terror lest he should die of the strain.
Pahom collapses just before reaching the starting point.
Pahom’s servant came running up and tried to raise him, but he saw that blood was flowing from his mouth. Pahom was dead! The Bashkirs clicked their tongues to show their pity. His servant picked up the spade and dug a grave long enough for Pahom to lie in, and buried him in it. Six feet from his head to his heels was all he needed.
The lesson from Tolstoy: beware hubris and greed, the first and second of the seven deadly sins.
In the short time Donald Trump has been President he has signed an unprecedented number of executive actions. Many of these actions were prepared by the conservative think tank Project 2025 which he disavowed during the campaign.
President Trump’s executive actions completely restructure government as we know it. (See It’s Not Amateur Hour Anymore, Paul Rosenzweig, The Atlantic) Some are illegal, unconstitutional and have already been challenged in the courts. Some proved so disrupting that they had to be rescinded. Others are just beginning to take effect. None of this is a surprise. Trump was clear about what he intended to do during his campaign. Voters were foolish not to believe him. Think in the Morning covered his first term attempts to do this in Marriage of Convenience. This is just more of the same, much more, and organized with the help of the Project 25 folks and the “tech bros” who have cozied up to Trump in hopes of increasing their billions of wealth in the burgeoning AI and cryptocurrency markets.
The Democrats, Never Trumpers, and ordinary folk seem to be caught off guard with the scope of the change going on around them. But, trees don’t grow to the sky and this too will fade over time albeit leaving its pound of damage behind. America never ceases to amaze.
To understand Trump’s mind (an oxymoron for those of us who grew up in different times) it is useful to briefly consider three past Presidents he says he admires: Andrew Jackson, William Mckinley and Teddy Rosevelt.
Trump has borrowed a number of ideas and actions from Andrew Jackson. Jackson claimed the election of 1824 was stolen, he remade the Democratic Party in his image, he developed the so-called “spoils system” whereby loyalists are rewarded and critics punished, he assumed broad powers and acted with near total impunity especially when he removed and relocated native Americans in the famous “trail of tears.” Our newly elected President has a nearly identical playbook right down to his recent claim that native Americans are not citizens.
As for McKinley, he was called the “Napoleon of protection (tariffs)” in his time. Trump is equally enamored of the mercantilist policies of the Renaissance and waxes poetic about it every chance he gets. McKinley was also a great expansionist and imperialist. He separated Cuba from Spain in the Spanish-American war (how has that worked out for us?), he took ownership of the Republic of Hawaii and purchased Guam, the Philippines and Puerto Rico.
Trump, following McKinley, imposed tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China the results of which are not yet in. He has stated he wants to take back the Panama Canal, buy Greenland and annex Canada as the 51st state. Horace Greely’s “go west young man” has become go south, east and north under our “very stable genius” President.
Last but not least is the John Wayne of American Presidents, Teddy Roosevelt. “If you’ve got them by the balls their hearts and minds will follow” was, I’m told, John Wayne’s favorite TR quote and it certainly seems Trumpian enough to please Trump’s unflappable supporters. TR and Trump have many things in common—both are New Yorkers (the only two such Presidents), both sons of rich and demanding fathers, both with a sense of entitlement, big egos, and simmering resentment and both called mentally unstable and racist by critics. Both took on the political establishment. Both were shot (Teddy Roosevelt famously continued his 90-miniute speech after being shot in the chest, Trump left the stage with a scratched ear).
However, there are major political differences between Trump and TR. Roosevelt was a progressive. He battled corporate monopolies, did not suffer the idle rich, had genuine compassion for the poor and championed such reforms as a living wage, a social safety net that included workmen’s compensation, pensions for the elderly and so on which he called his “Square Deal.” He made protecting the environment a major focus of his administration.
Trump is imposing taxes on the poor with his tariffs and using the money to provide tax cuts for the rich. He’s surrounded himself with billionaire oligarchs and pulled us out of the Paris Climate Agreement.
Roosevelt was known for his physical courage including knocking out a gun-toting, drunken cowboy who accosted him in a bar and leading a cavalry of volunteers (the Rough Riders) on a famous charge during the Spanish American War. Trump’s medical deferment for heel spurs kept him out of the Vietnam War. He claimed John McCain was not a war hero and that American soldiers killed and wounded were suckers and losers.
TR spoke French and German, authored over 30 books. He was an avid reader and had a curiosity and empathy and interest in things beyond himself and was a great listener.
Need I go on?
Like them or hate them Andrew Jackson, William McKinley and Teddy Roosevelt came and went and America survived. I am optimistic that America will survive and thrive in the future although in the short run I’m nervous and concerned. My long-term confidence comes from that lesson that Tolstoy taught us about overreach.
There is a similar anecdote from a book by the late Vanguard founder John Bogle. This was an exchange Bogle witnessed at a party given by a billionaire on Shelter Island in New York. The late novelist Kurt Vonnegut informed his pal, Joseph Heller, that their host, a hedge fund manager, had made more money in a single day than Heller had eared from his wildly popular novel Catch-22 over its whole history. Heller resonded: “Yes, but I have something he will never have … enough.” Will President Trump ever have enough? I tend to doubt it and that, I believe, will be his downfall.
I’ll end with Chapter 29 from The Way of Life by Lao Tzu. My first exposure this fine exposition on how to live was through a translation by Witter Bynner and it remains one of my favorite translations.
Lao Tzu, The Way Of Life, Chapter 29
Witter Bynner translation
Those who would take over the earth
And shape it to their will
Never, I notice, succeed.
The earth is like a vessel so sacred
That at the mere approach of the profane
It is marred
And when they reach out their fingers it is gone.
For a time in the world some force themselves ahead
And some are left behind,
For a time in the world some make a great noise
And some are held silent,
For a time in the world some are puffed fat
And some are kept hungry,
For a time in the world some push aboard
And some are tipped out:
At no time in the world will a man who is sane
Over-reach himself,
Over-spend himself,
Over-rate himself.
Great analysis, David. The only thing I might take issue with is does Trump really know enough about Jackson, McKinley and TR? Trump’s major traits are well recognized. I don’t think he gets enough credit for his ignorance and stupidity.
Trump is not ignorant and stupid. He has a short attention span and a narcissistic personality and enjoys being provocative so he throws lots of spaghetti onto the frig to see what sticks. I also suspect he is influenced by the Project 25 group and his billionaire buddies.
Great article and after I wrote about a phrase, “native Americans are not citizens”, I saw your explanation that you have gotten too many stridant comments, so avoid that topic. I can understand that, but will keep enjoying your articles.
thanks for them.
Trump might not have mentioned Herbert Hoover as a President he admired but they share some similar traits besides their hubris, particularly when it comes to tariffs. As an economist, you know about the Smoot-Hawley Tariff of 1930. The law raised U.S. tariffs on thousands of imported goods to historically high levels, prompting retaliatory tariffs from trading partners, which we will soon see with Canada, Mexico, and China as it pertains to Trump’s tariffs. ‘Ol Joe from Ohio, a strong supporter of Trump and MAGA, who was concerned about his grocery bills will soon be jolted by the fact that he might have to depend on a local food bank to feed himself and his family. Oh wait, funding for that has been suspended. Sorry, Joe.