Brookings resident Carl Kline is an ordained clergyman, part-time teacher and occasional blogger.

It was a word I heard often when I was a young child. I would be whining about something all the other kids had, and I wanted; and my mother, tired of my persistent noise, would sternly rebuke me with only one word, said loudly with intensity, “enough!”

Or perhaps there was a new batch of cookies, straight from the oven. I might snatch one from behind her back not realizing she had eyes in the back of her head. Then when I took another in plain sight and went for a third, she said in a way I knew she meant it: “enough!”

I have enough greeting cards. Some organizations I’ve supported with a donation or two are in the habit of sending a group of cards to me with every new solicitation. It’s Christmas cards around Dec. 1. Then there are Easter cards as winter winds down. I’ve received cards for Halloween and Thanksgiving. Yesterday for the first time, birthday cards came in the mail.

These cards are all in a box on a shelf in my office. The box is overflowing. “Enough!” Who even uses cards anymore when the internet and smart phones are available. Our Christmas card collection is minuscule this year and our New Year's card and letter never evolved.

Or there are my books. I know I’m an addict and I’m trying. When I offered, a friend took one the other day. It was one I hadn’t read so there was just a tinge of hesitation to let it go. But I knew it would never get read even if I lived to be a hundred. There were just too many ahead of it. I always offer. One friend recently took several. Slowly I see holes in the bookcases and I know I still have more than enough.

I’ve been in homes where the word “enough” was understood differently. There was never enough. The water supply had to be renewed daily, traveling a mile or more, and still there might not be enough for the coffee the next morning.

There were two beds and five people; so you slept close or took turns. There was never enough money for food, so you taught your children to beg at the train station; with a screwed up face that suggested their pain and hunger.

The planet is filled with those who don’t have enough of life’s basic necessities. Which makes it all the more troublesome that there are many, who were never taught, and don’t understand the meaning of “enough.”

There’s a stretch of Rhode Island coast that is home to many American billionaires. One of them is Stephen Schwarzman. He and his wife live in Miramar, a mansion with 44,000 square feet of living space, with 22 bedrooms, 13 full bathrooms; and a seven-bed, seven-bath guesthouse. Schwarzman has also purchased an adjacent property with 15 bedrooms and 12 bathrooms, and a six-car garage. They have $200 million worth of vacation homes in England, Jamaica, Palm Beach, Saint-Tropez and the Hamptons. The Schwarzmans are upsetting their wealthy neighbors because they have added a helipad, and the pilots always fly over neighboring homes rather than approaching from the ocean.

Schwarzman is just one of the billionaires supporting Donald Trump. He was an adviser in the first Trump administration and it remains to be seen if he will serve in some way in the second. At least 13 billionaires have been announced for cabinet posts and other administrative roles. Their total worth as of early December was at least $382.2 billion, more than the GDP of 172 different countries. This will be the richest administration in history, an oligarchy like we’ve never seen before.

There seems to be a small discrepancy between the image Trump campaigned on, as the working man’s candidate, and the looks of his future government. Musk, the wealthiest man on the planet, will be leading the government cost cutting for the Trump administration. He has reportedly said, “We have to reduce spending to live within our means, and you know, that necessarily involves some temporary hardship, but it will ensure long-term prosperity.”

Hardship for whom, Mr. Musk? For the poor and homeless, made poorer by the Schwarzman firm, as they bought up real estate cheap and raised rents on properties as much as 80%. Hardship for whom, Mr. Musk? For the seniors and those who are ill, who face potential cuts to Social Security and Medicare? Hardship for whom, Mr. Musk? For the undocumented milking our cows, tending the chickens, picking our vegetables and roofing our houses? Hardship for whom, Mr. Musk? The single mother working two jobs to support her children; or the small-business owner threatened with bankruptcy?

Enough! Enough billionaires in government. Enough money in politics! I agree with the late President Jimmy Carter, quoted as early as 2015, as Donald Trump came on the political scene. Speaking about money in politics, our peanut farmer president said, “It violates the essence of what made America a great country in its political system. Now it’s just an oligarchy with unlimited political bribery.”

Enough!