Pity the poor billionaires. The world is not as enamoured with them as it once was, and the moneyed are upset that they don't know where they stand any more. Are they winners, or wicked?
Even though we traditionally measure success by how much money you have amassed, and they have more than anyone, a shift has occurred. We are starting to see these funded folks more as a global liability than the blessing that they consider themselves to be.
Show me a billionaire and I will show you someone that got to the top of the heap by way of tax evasion, environmental destruction, corruption, low paid workers, and a host of other questionable and outright criminal behaviours.
One study found that if the 3000 largest corporations had to pay for all the damage they were responsible for, none of them would be profitable.
The companies in question were responsible for $2.15 trillion dollars in environmental damages in 2008 alone. One year. But wait, there is more.
We also have to include the $4.7 trillion per year in health care and social costs, lost ecosystem services and pollution.
In other words, if companies really did put people and the planet before anything else, there would be no profits. The "profits" can only be made through the exploitation of both the people and the planet.
Then there is corporate malfeasance, which outright steals untold trillions of dollars more from the global economy. All of this only to make a small group of people insanely wealthy.
Can the world afford billionaires? Are such individuals a net benefit for society? Or are they a danger to themselves and others?
Money hoarding can be a sign of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, so if we do what some suggest, and eliminate the status of billionaire (not to be confused with eliminating people that are billionaires), we might be doing the billionaires themselves a favour.
There is no use hoarding all that cash if people don't respect what you do, or how you do it.
We can see that the little men behind the curtain that have been operating the gears and levers of the billionaire assembly line, really only want love, just like the rest of us. They just don't know how to get it.
What a frustrating, yet humbling, moment that must be for them.
All 2229 of them.
No, we don't envy you. We pity you.
You are wicked, and now you are a bunch of whiners, too. A former coffee company CEO, seeing where the whole thing is headed, is now asking us to call him and his fellow hoarders "people of means" rather than the now increasingly pejorative "billionaires".
So I say to them,
"People of means, please seek help before you destroy everything, including yourselves. Maybe, in the end, you will find the love you obviously want, but don't know how to get through normal, healthy means."
There is indeed nothing better than love, is there? Not even billions and billions of dollars.
I'm a great advocate for capping wages.
ReplyDeleteCan you imagine it? I'm pretty sure the number of a**hole billionaires and CEOs would drop pretty quick when they realised they'd only ever earn a certain amount.
Same with politicians. On a capped salary we might finally end up with people in the job with real altruism instead of those wanting the fame and fortune. Sigh....
And it is not just the billionaires. I am not surprised to learn that there are millions of millionaires, and millions more made each year. They are better off, the rest of us are worse off. I think the two are connected.
DeleteExactly as you said, the only reason they're at the top is because of their extreme exploitation of humanity, the environment and other living beings. It's a great big pyramid scheme. They stand at the top, only by virtue of the entire world that is underneath them, propping them up. Which is why I believe it's important for all of us to work together to stop them. If we don't support them or their corruption, if we don't try to emulate them, if we don't buy their products or work for them, where will they get all their power and money? There is power in numbers, and the 99% far outstrips the 1%, by billions of people. Maybe it's true that some of them truly just want love but are going about it in an inverted and detrimental way, but I honestly think that many of them are just plain sociopathic narcissists who don't care about anything or anyone but themselves and their own selfish desires, and will do whatever they can to amass power and wealth at whatever cost. They seem to be unethical and immoral black holes that devour all in their path, as we've seen in the near-total destruction of the environment, extinction of innumerable species and eco-systems, skyrocketing rates of mental illness and poverty, etc. They show no signs of slowing down for anyone or anything and if we imagine the future, it's hard to see anything surviving. It's our ethical duty to stop destructive and harmful people and to protect one another. We put murderers and violent criminals in jail, why is it that the most murderous and destructive individuals are running the world and being lauded and held up as paragons of success to be venerated, instead of put behind bars for the safety of the entire planet and humankind?
ReplyDeleteIt is hard to know what we can do about this sad state of affairs, since so many of us have been asleep at the wheel for so long. The rot is firmly entrenched, and amputation may be required.
DeleteI wonder if Mr-coffee-company-CEO (Howard Schultz of Starbucks) knows that when you google the term person of means, you'll see the Thesaurus.com website that says..."Person of Means as in fat cat". Ha! And he thought being called a billionaire was pejorative.
ReplyDeleteOften I have thought, where do these billionaire planet destroyers think they are going to go when the shi*t really hits the fan and the planet begins to collapse? It's not like there is a Moon or Mars base they can go to. Even if they have some secure bunker, they are going to need clean water and clean air to continue living. Besides their behavior and thinking being disgusting, its downright baffling. - Mary
Ha, ha, ha. I love fat cat. Livin large.
DeleteThey may have money, but don't seem to have much in the way of ethics, morals, or a sense of cooperation with the larger human family.
It will be their undoing.