Billionaires, beware!
7 July 2025
Billionaires and the wealthy, in general, should tread carefully about overusing their power and wealth, because it could be turned against them. I’ve previously argued that successful businesses should make charitable giving a core part of their operations. It benefits both charities and society, enhances the company’s image as one committed to creating a better world, and helps keep corporate egos in check by focusing on the needs of those less fortunate.
However, many of today’s wealthy seem fixated on greed. They’re doing better economically than ever before, but it’s still not enough. They buy into ideas like social Darwinism, the belief that successful entrepreneurs should be rewarded while others should be motivated to emulate them.
The danger lies in the public's resentment of such policies. A case in point is the “big ugly bill” passed by Trump and the Republican Party, designed to make America’s wealthiest individuals even wealthier and more powerful, and to “turn American democracy into a giant corporation run by a handful of absurdly rich men.”
The American public might respond by:
Imposing limits on the power of the wealthy, such as capping campaign contributions.
Curbing CEOs’ astronomical salaries, either by eliminating their tax deductibility or raising tax rates on the highest incomes.
Boycotting companies owned by billionaires.
Protesting at the businesses or properties of the wealthy, such as the Tesla Takedown protests against Musk or demonstrations at Trump properties.
Shunning wealthy individuals who support these policies.
Although violence should be condemned, we can predict there may be attacks against Trump and Musk, among the most hated people in the world, who routinely flaunt extreme wealth inequality:
It is almost universally true that violence has been necessary to ensure the redistribution of wealth at any point in time,” said Walter Scheidel, a professor of history and classics at Stanford, summarizing the thesis of The Great Leveler: Violence and the History of Inequality from the Stone Age to the Twenty-First Century, his newly published book.
Will this kind of backlash occur? Many Americans may be too uninformed, preoccupied or uninterested to take any action at all. Time will tell.
The index to my prior essays (mostly post 5 November 2024) is here.
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