It's a big club and your not invited
In my first post I spoke about the manager where I work who didn’t believe that billionaires were bad. In our discussion I covered a lot of points about how billionaires actually have a negative impact on our society. I also mentioned at the end of that piece I had discovered a report by Oxfam that went in depth on the ways billionaires make their money. I also mused on why it is that some people still look up to billionaires or even accept them as something that should exist in our world. Well I have read through some of that report, watched some videos and researched a few key ideas and I think I am ready to tackle the questions I have about why the ultra-mega wealthy still enjoy the freedom to profit.
The culture
The first idea we need to come to terms with is that of cultural hegemony. This is the idea that the ruling class shapes our world view by influencing our culture, values and perceptions. This is a rather simplistic explanation of the idea.
The ruling class have slowly over time shaped our world view to accept them as being wealthy and us as being not so wealthy. Consider the phrase “pull yourself up by your bootstraps”. We might say this when referring to people who have fallen on financial hard times. As if they could just dust themselves off and get on with life but this isn’t really the case. Another example, is how a character is depicted as successful in a film. If you pictured that they had financial wealth then that is the effects of cultural hegemony at work.
We all tend to think that because, that has become the norm for the working class way of life. The ultra rich are just successful and you just need to work hard to get your piece of the pie. This is an important part of the ideology. You need to believe that you can also attain the lofty heights of the ultra rich but, you cannot reach that status. Let’s look at that Oxfam report and see how we will never be part of the club.
The big club
Most billionaire wealth is inherited(Oxfam pg11). So there goes the myth of the hard working billioniare. Anyway, let’s see about the new rich kids on the block. According to The Guardian we are in the process of the biggest wealth transfer in history where roughly £4.1 Trillion is about to be passed down in inheritances. This is largely un-taxed as most billionaires live in countries that do not tax inheritance. This further concentrates wealth amongst the same families(Oxfam pg39)
A quick peek at the two youngest billionaires shows us that Johannes von Baumbach(19) heir to the private pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim is worth $5.7 billion and Lívia Voigt de Assis a shareholder in her grandfathers company WEG which produces electrical motors is worth a paltry $1.2 billion. That is not a bad life to be born into but let’s not assume that this is a new trend.
We know Elon got a healthy deposit from his fathers dealings but, let’s take a quick look at another African billionaire. Aliko Dangote is a Nigerian businessman who deals in commodities such as cement and sugar. He is worth £25.4 billion dollars currently and is the 88th richest person in the world. He was born into wealth because his great-grandfather Alhassan Dantata was one of the wealthiest men in West Africa in the early 20th century. Here we can see how wealth is passed down the generations and stays within the families who can then use it to make more wealth.
Mates Rates
This brings us firmly to the next major way the ultra rich keep their wealth circulating amongst themselves. You make sure you only deal with your closest friends or cronies. We call this cronyism. According to Oxfam 6% of billionaire wealth stems from cronyism(Oxfam pg11). That is a lot of money when you start working with 7 digit figures. A good example of cronyism would be the oligarchs of Russia who scooped up all the state assets after the fall of the USSR.
The word oligarch doesn’t specifically refer to just them though. Every developed nation has their own handful of oligarchs and they all are in some way involved in lobbying government or corrupt officials. Another recent example was the tech-bro’s at Trumps inauguration. Once you start amassing enough wealth that you can influence government policy then it is time to monopolize if you haven't already.
These businesses monopolise their industries as a way to further their profits and control the market. This is happening all the time. Look at the tech industry in the USA or the food industry anywhere in the world. In fact remember Aliko Dangote from a few minutes ago? Yea he has a monopoly on the cement industry in Nigeria.
The BIG C
Now it is time to acknowledge the elephant mounted on the wall in this aristocratic room. Please pour yourself a brandy from the globe mini bar while the servant puts another log on the fire. That’s right we are talking colonialism! The source of most of the worlds current issues is also at the heart of this billionaire problem. Colonial empires decimated indigenous peoples while taking every resource they could from the land they stole. It is really difficult to fully grasp the scale and injustice of it all. Fortunately the oxfam report has some numbers to help us with this.
“Between 1765 and 1900, the richest 10% in the UK extracted wealth from India alone worth US$33.8 trillion in today’s money. This would be enough to carpet the surface area of London in £50 notes almost four times over.”
“Following the abolition of slavery and its independence from France, Haiti was forced to borrow 150 million francs from France (the equivalent of US$21bn today) to reimburse slave owners, with 80% of this being paid to the richest enslavers. This catalysed a cycle of debt and disaster that has continued until the present day.”(oxfam pg14)
This money didn’t just disappear, it has been invested and passed down so that it stays within ultra rich circles. We now divide the world into global north and global south because of the wealth inequality caused by colonialism. Let’s not forget the other major issues such as racism, power inequality, environmental and cultural destruction.
Colonialism may have ended roughly 80 years ago but those empires didn’t die. They corporatised and privatised so that they could continue their extractive endeavours in the form of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (oxfam pg15). They have restructured the world by redrawing the borders and implementing oppressive financial policies to continue their extractivism.
"Yea, well, that's just like, your opinion, man"
I know this is a hard pill to swallow but this is the world we live in currently. Billions of peoples lives are effected everyday by the stroke of a pen in the pursuit of profits. Policies are made to benefit the few at the expense of the rest but I think knowing is half the battle. It doesn’t necessarily make existing in our world easier but it shines a light on how to move forward. The idea of making money should not be the ultimate goal. Your value as a human should not be attached to that pursuit of money. That’s the cultural hegemony working and as I have tried to point out the system is rigged in their favour. The ultra rich have designed the world to benefit them and convinced us to think we have a fighting chance.
We should disconnect more and engage with nature. I don’t just mean go outside and touch grass but actually get out there and learn about the environment. While you are out there say howdy to your neighbour and get involved with your community. You will never be in the billionaire club but you can start your own club with those around you and that will have genuine value for everyone.
Here are a few suggestions. Start a food not bombs, join a cycle group, help maintain green spaces, volunteer with a charity, library or community group, join a union or a boxing gym.
(RE)Sources:
https://www.oxfam.org/en/research/takers-not-makers-unjust-poverty-and-unearned-wealth-colonialism
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LI_2-qsovo
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_hegemony
https://www.forbes.com/profile/livia-voigt-de-assis/
https://www.forbes.com/profile/johannes-von-baumbach/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aliko_Dangote