Plutocrats
was looking around on Amazon for the next business related book to read and found this: "Plutocrats: The Rise of the New Global Super-Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else" (http://www.Amazon.com/Plutocrats-Global-Super-Ric…)
A groundbreaking examination of wealth disparity, income inequality, and the new global eliteThere has always been some gap between rich and poor in this country, but in the last few decades what it means to be rich has changed dramatically. Alarmingly, the greatest income gap is not between the 1 percent and the 99 percent, but within the wealthiest 1 percent of our nation--as the merely wealthy are left behind by the rapidly expanding fortunes of the new global super-rich. Forget the 1 percent; Plutocrats proves that it is the wealthiest 0.1 percent who are outpacing the rest of us at break-neck speed.
What’s changed is more than numbers. Today, most colossal fortunes are new, not inherited--amassed by perceptive businessmen who see themselves as deserving victors in a cut-throat international competition. As a transglobal class of successful professionals, today’s self-made oligarchs often feel they have more in common with one another than with their countrymen back home. Bringing together the economics and psychology of these new super-rich, Plutocrats puts us inside a league very much of its own, with its own rules.
The closest mirror to our own time is the late nineteenth century Gilded Age--the era of powerful ‘robber barons’ like Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller. Then as now, emerging markets and innovative technologies collided to produce unprecedented wealth for more people than ever in human history. Yet those at the very top benefited far more than others--and from this pinnacle they exercised immense and unchecked power in their countries. Today’s closest analogue to these robber barons can be found in the turbulent economies of India, Brazil, and China, all home to ferocious market competition and political turmoil. But wealth, corruption, and populism are no longer constrained by national borders, so this new Gilded Age is already transforming the economics of the West as well. Plutocrats demonstrates how social upheavals generated by the first Gilded Age may pale in comparison to what is in store for us, as the wealth of the entire globalized world is concentrated in fewer and fewer hands.
Cracking open the tight-knit world of the new global super-rich is Chrystia Freeland, an acclaimed business journalist who has spent nearly two decades reporting on the new transglobal elite. She parses an internal Citigroup memo that urges clients to design portfolios around the international “Plutonomy” and not the national “rest”; follows Russian, Mexican, and Indian oligarchs during the privatization boom as they manipulate the levers of power to commandeer their local economies; breaks down the gender divide between the vast female-managed ‘middle class’ and the world’s one thousand billionaires; shows how, by controlling both the economic and political institutions of their nation, the richest members of China’s National People’s Congress have amassed more wealth than every branch of American government combined--the president, his cabinet, the justices of the Supreme Court, and both houses of Congress.
Though the results can be shocking, Freeland dissects the lives of the world’s wealthiest individuals with empathy, intelligence, and deep insight. Brightly written, powerfully researched, and propelled by fascinating original interviews with the plutocrats themselves, Plutocrats is a tour-de-force of social and economic history, and the definitive examination of inequality in our time.
Thoughts monkeys?
Even if the title suggests a little bias, it sounds worth a read. Although I have a list of books In The Flesh reviewed that I'll have to check out first.
This is why I so vehemtly despise the GOP concept of "voting with your dollars". This is not new: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Power_Elite
What annoys me about this kind of rhetoric is the either-or attitude. EITHER we realize this trend of plutocrats getting richer, OR we will be screwed because of their existence. This is obviously not true.
There have been emperors outside of politics since money was created. We're still here, aren't we? The Rockefeller's didn't commission us as slaves, just like Zuckerberg won't. You can still play the game of life and do well, even if some guy has $10b.
Example: I laugh at tea partiers who don't realize that their whole silly 'movement' was bankrolled by the Koch brothers and often don't even know who they are. I laugh at them more when they call me a 'liberal' for pointing that out. What they don't see is what I see: they're just doing the bidding of a couple of billionaires who will pull the plug on the whole thing when they get what they want. Same thing with the followers of Sandy Weill, Rupert Murdoch, George Soros, and Warren Buffet.
What political football team you currently play for is irrelevant as far as I'm concerned: if someone has the type of money and power to make decisions that affect almost everyone on earth, I'd like to be aware of their existance, and it's good to keep an eye on what they do. When I see people saying "all is well, go mind your business" I tend to raise an eyebrow and wonder why. I personally don't trust anyone who has too much power over my immediate situation and question the judgement and sanity of people who do.
But that's just me.
I agree with your general argument I suppose but this point is problematic for me. I don't see increasing dominance in our lives by plutocrats, I just see them doing their usual, colon-cleaning (of our asses in the sense that we're pawns in their game) that lines their pockets/interests/whatever. That kind of thing has been around since forever. I think it's one of those times where you have to say, if I can't beat them, I'll just do my best to join them.
As for whether or not a revolution is actually needed, well, I'm not even going there. I don' t think so, but hey, look at the riots in the streets of Europe. Hopefully that's enough warning for us to get our shit in order...
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