In the United States, there is a strong love-hate relationship with billionaires. This is for a good reason. There are 3000, or so, billionaires in the world, and there are about 100 million or so, millionaires. But there are 8,000,000,000 people in the world, and 75% of those people make less than a living wage. But 70% of those billions of people fuel the world’s economy, directly.
In 2024 alone, these industries had record profits, Oil and Gas, 17% increase YoY, Candy, also a 17% increase YoY, Health Insurance 4% increase YoY, and Utilities, especially electricity with 19% increase YoY. This is not to mention the enormous inflation that plagues many countries overseas, like Turkey and Ukraine.
There have been a number of very reasonable explanations for these increases, all of which fall under the umbrella of supply and demand. Some of those reasons are: that more people are buying, you can’t compare the economy now to the pandemic economy, the supply chain is radically different now as compared to the pre-pandemic supply chain. None of them take into account the elephant in the room, greed.
Not corporate greed, corporations are run like dictatorships, with an authoritarian in the top position, and some C-Level executives who mostly resemble oligarchs. And huge numbers of workers (citizens) who must do exactly what the dictator says or they lose their livelihood. Although for the most part, corporate laws mirror common law, there is a great deal of corruption at the top.
Greed has no goodwill, and becoming a billionaire takes a cold and calculating person, who is willing to present themselves as a savior and person of the people and for the people. This is far from the truth. The richest person in the world feeds off a Chinese market and gets most of his business in the United States because Chinese workers are so oppressed. He prances around on stage with presidents and makes people believe he is a genius, when all he does is prance, and those will much more intelligence, are doing the work, to make him wealthy. He is not the only billionaire doing this.
Our most prominent phone manufacturer, buys the cheapest parts from China, as does the second largest phone manufacturer. Software giants, all use workers from Kenya, to race to train the latest AI chatbot, that can act appropriately and not hallucinate constantly and treat people with the most vile discriminatory rhetoric. They pay these workers 2 dollars for a 16 hour day.
We all know this but we allow it, mostly because we have come to see it as a good and proper way to act, even if it’s repulsive and oppressive. Everyone wants to be rich, right?
80 percent of the stock market is owned by billionaires, 20 percent by everyone else. That is our economic weathervane when it could never predict the economic value of the average person, who spends 90 percent of their wealth to survive during their lifetime.
Although there are some very reasonable ways to alleviate this disparity, that’s not going to happen. Because the average person believes they can’t change the power structure that oppresses them. Building businesses based on quality of profit, rather than quantity, will gain more profit over ten years than a company focused on quantity. But everyone wants the most, the most power, the most money, and the best cars, bicycles, and guitar strings. The constant media reporting on companies’ profits, and how important that is, will thwart any effort to help the average person. And if the billionaires don’t get what they want, they will take it, by violence, manipulation, and disinformation.
Our fight is to question everything. To build businesses that help the average person, not the corporate executive. And when greed rears itself above all else, tear it down. Non-violently. MLK Jr and a group of people who needed freedom, walked across the bridge in Selma, with an army of people that meant to kill them on the other side. They didn’t want to go, they were scared, they feared for their lives. They didn’t raise a hand against their oppressors.
We have dozens of ways to fight oppression and billionaires. Much easier than Selma.
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