“The first law of politics is that a body politic is divided into a ruling class and a ruled class. Human beings are born babies…They survive only in nurseries…”
R.G. Collingwood–The New Leviathan–published 1942
Let’s talk real privilege:
A billion dollars is an obscene quantity of money. According to Forbes there are 2,640 billionaires in the world in 2023. There are no laws specifically designed to protect the public interest from a billionaire who wishes to manipulate boardrooms, public institutions, policy, or our elected officials. There is no system to even measure their influence.
We have anti-trust laws in Western democracies that regulate organizations to promote fair competition and prevent price gouging. We may not tolerate monopolies, but we allow every sector to become dominated by corporate behemoths, who are directed by boardrooms where billionaires quietly wield influence–directly or by proxy.
The media’s role in a democracy is crucial. We rely on it to keep the bastards honest, to scrutinize and expose those who threaten the public interest. The concentration of media ownership fundamentally changes the calculus. It means the billionaire need not even control a boardroom. The corporate culture of mega-corporations naturally aligns with billionaire interests. And it is all too easy to weaponize advertising budgets: directing funds to sympathetic editors whilst withdrawing them from critics.
To illustrate, during the recent COVID pandemic. Pfizer, a major pharmaceutical company, became the top choice for governments to supply Covid vaccines. Every major news channel was inundated with Pfizer advertising. When covid vaccine rates lagged, the editorial messaging from those same news outlets, who enjoyed Pfizer’s ad revenue, supported the efficacy of vaccines, censored criticism, denied reports of vaccine injuries and lambasted any opposition “anti-vaxxers.”
At the same time, Bill Gates was plugging his enormous financial gains from vaccine investments. His not-for-profit Gates Foundation was busy boosting vaccination rates worldwide. During the years immediately prior to the pandemic, the Gates Foundation, along Pfizer and all the major pharmaceutical companies, became the top financial donor to the World Health Organization. And just like that, the WHO’s priorities shifted: from general health education in poor countries to lifting vaccination rates.
Global Institutional capture is not unique. We see the same pattern repeated across every major sector from healthcare, banking, energy, and utilities. This capture traps the public’s mind and renders us collectively mute.
TERRIBLE TRUTH
We are left with a terrible truth: Western democracy is beholden to the whims of a small clique of uber-wealthy individuals. The values we espouse and how we think of ourselves is a lie.
The Management of a billion dollars in wealth is akin to running a kingdom. You need an inner court; you recruit the best advisers, industry strategists, lawyers, bankers, lobbyists, accountants, publicists, and marketers. You enjoy exclusive access to politicians, banks, media, industry leaders, and experts. You are on everyones invitation list.
Of the 2,064 billionaires worldwide, 735 are in the USA and another 619 in the European Union, Australia, Canada, and NZ. In total, the Western World has 1,354 billionaires. Less than 15% of countries make up over 50% of the full list. This does not include Taiwan, South Korea, and Japan, numbering a further 122 billionaires, who are economically and politically integrated into the greater west.
It is not surprising that the geographic distribution of billionaires mirrors comparative country GDP ratios. Do not expect to find many billionaires in less developed parts of the world.
The top nine industries for billionaires are:
15% Finance and Investments
13% Manufacturing–including the Military Industrial Complex
12% Technology
9% Retail and Fashion
8% Healthcare
8% Food and Beverage
8% Mining and Energy
7% Real Estate
4% Media and Entertainment
Reduce the threshold by tenfold, from a billion dollars to a net worth of $100 million, the list increases tenfold from 2,640 to 28,760. Subtract one from the other and we have over 26,000 ambitious wannabe billionaires.
UPPER-CLASS PRIVILEGE
A study by professors Kaplan and Rauh of Stanford helps to categorize billionaires psychologically. They identified them into three distinct groups: the Self-made, the Advantaged, and the Inheritors. They report that 20% of billionaires are born into average or poor families, 80% into upper-class privilege, and near a third inherited most or all their fortune.
Books written by other Psychologists explain how Inheritors experience feelings of inadequacy. They are often described as a class that lacks substance and knowledge. Professional investors and trust funds often take direct charge of their wealth.
Confidence and self-reliance are more pronounced in Self-made billionaires. It is more likely for them to remain focused and directly involved in their businesses. Often seen with suspicion and envy by their peers, they lack generational connections. They are on every invitation list, but not in the inner circle.
Near half of the list is made up of the Advantaged group. These are intelligent individuals who attended prestigious educational institutions. Invitations to elite clubs and generational connections at the highest levels worldwide are theirs. As a class, they do not suffer from feelings of inadequacy and are the most likely to harbor feelings of superiority and the most likely to use their influence on policy and opinion.
DEPENDS ON THE GENERAL TEMPER
As George Orwell wrote, “The point is that the relative freedom which we enjoy depends on public opinion. The law is no protection. Governments make laws, but whether they are carried out, and how the police behave, depends on the general temper in the country. If large numbers of people are interested in freedom of speech, there will be freedom of speech, even if the law forbids it; if public opinion is sluggish, inconvenient minorities will be persecuted, even if the laws exist to protect them.”
It follows then, for a billionaire oligarch to manipulate the democratic system they need to manage the temper of the country. Often-times, to do that effectively, it necessitates the conjuring of all sorts of myths and distortions. As Collingwood said – “Human beings are born babies…They survive only in nurseries.”
GROW-UP
Perhaps, the first step for us babies might be to ditch the web of fairytales sold to us. It might be that if we grow-up and bravely shine the light on corruption, democracy remains salvageable, and the plutocrat problem may recede–as it has in the past.
