Fear, Loathing, and Wealth Inequality

Billionaires or Democracy. THAT is the question.

Eat the Rich

Look -I’m a vegetarian and I’m not going to propose any radical changes to our diet.

And I am not anti-wealth (in fact, if you are listening Barbra, George, Michael Bloomberg, and/or Mark Cuban, I have some compelling ideas around new media and civic social networks that can radically strengthen democracy).

I recognize some people have had the vision, leadership capability, and have put their own money and reputation at risk to drive innovation, create businesses, and sometimes entire industries are born through their effort. Throughout the course of my technology career, I’ve worked with and for some incredibly talented entrepreneurs and visionaries (Mike, Bruce, Kara, Gurinder, Ralph, Ron, and Cary -looking at you here).

After the first wave of innovation, when someone has led a business from concept to $30 million in revenue, then on to an IPO (Initial Public Offering), and has turned their vision into millions of dollars of economic reward (perhaps hundreds of millions), they most certainly have earned a boatload of cash. And, notably, while they have led an enterprise to success, there are likely hundreds around them that failed along the way.

After the IPO (or another successful “exit” such as an acquisition, or some other event that creates significant wealth for the founder or founders), there is an inflection point. An unfortunate and all too common path is to be seduced by the accumulation of greater wealth. It is a path of avarice and greed. Instead of earning additional wealth through the same level of effort, vision, leadership, and putting capital at risk, there is a desire to add wealth by manipulating the societal system in place.

• I can keep more of my money if I minimize (or evade) taxes.

• I can accumulate more money if I shift my business costs to society (externalities).

• I can accumulate more money if I can change the governmental rules to benefit me, regardless of the harm to society or the planet.

How many of us budget paycheck to paycheck? In a recent study nearly 1/2 of all Americans couldn’t pay for an unexpected $1,000 expense. https://www.cnbc.com/2024/01/24/many-americans-cannot-pay-for-an-unexpected-1000-expense-heres-why.html

Budgeting is unpleasant. We’re told (by those who have accumulated extreme wealth) that we can improve our economic standing by giving up a $5 mocha latte no-foam soy supreme a couple of times a week. We wonder if we’ll have enough money for a vacation or a getaway. What about college for our children? What about Pre-K? What about a costly life-saving prescription drug? I can understand why someone who has earned vast wealth wants to keep it, even add to it so they don’t have to budget along with you or me. If they want a weekend at Lake Como in Italy -they can have their personal assistant book the trip. Don’t feel like dealing with the lines at the airport -charter a private flight. Sick of the harsh Boston or Chicago winters? Buy a home in Palm Beach, Malibu, Scottsdale, and/or Palm Springs.

If we are fortunate enough to have any financial savings or reserves, we might invest in CD’s and earn a percent or two. We might put it in a savings account and turn our $5,000 into $5,025 at the end of a year. We might put some money in stocks and/or bonds.

If you’ve accumulated vast wealth -you have different options. Let’s say I had a great exit from a venture I founded and I’m now I’m worth $100 million. I can invest in Venture Capital funds and/or Private Equity funds. (The return for top quartile funds ranges from 25%-40% annually). This means that the same $5,000 investment at the end of the year is now worth $6,250-$7,000. And realistically -they aren’t investing $5,000 -they want their money to “do the work” and so at the end of the year, a $50 million dollar investment is now worth $70 million.

This is still not enough for some. I might have to pay a 15% Capital Gains tax on the $20 million dollar return, or $3 million dollars. (It’s important to note that Income -our paychecks) are taxed at between 22% and 37% -so when the wealthiest individuals like Elon Musk cry about their taxes, they are paying less than we are on a percentage basis -so excuse me if I do not share their sadness.

Those who have accumulated vast wealth -have a different playing field for taxation and for investment. Let’s take that newly-minted post-exit founder now worth $50,000,000. They can invest in stocks, bonds, options trading, venture capital, private equity deals, and use strategies to shift their tax burden from the gut-wrenching 15% to zero. And they can “invest” in political candidates, Congress, State/Local government, and even shift the judicial landscape in America. This is part of why Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren (and others) tell us that the “system is rigged.” Another part of the “rigged system” is related to predatory fees and expenses incurred by those without millions of dollars in assets. For example, loans are far more expensive if you have limited financial means -and a couple of percentage points on a mortgage can translate to hundreds of thousands of dollars for someone without sizable savings.

The examples of avarice and greed in the United States and throughout the world are stunning, and more so when compared to hunger, deprivation, and housing insecurity. Students emerge from colleges and universities with their hopes and dreams weighted down by a massive debt burden -and those interest payments help keep Betsy DeVos’ yacht in tip-top shape. (https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereknewton/2018/08/30/betsy-devos-the-queen-of-debt/)

Amway/Student Loan Debt Poster Monster, Betsy DeVos and one of her yachts.

And the DeVos/Prince family doesn’t stop at diminishing the future of college graduates, Betsy’s brother Erik was noted in The Mueller Report as working on backchannel discussions between Trump and Putin during the 2016 election cycle. He was the founder of the private mercenary group “Blackwater” and he called for the United States to colonize Africa and Latin America -because that always works so well for the people being “colonized”.

• https://theintercept.com/2024/02/10/erik-prince-off-leash-imperialism-colonialism/

• https://www.reuters.com/article/world/trump-backer-erik-prince-s-account-of-russian-banker-contact-differs-from-muelle-idUSKCN1RV03F/

My problem with wealth -isn’t with wealth itself. It’s with avarice, greed, and using massively unequal power to diminish the quality of life in America and around the world. While the list below is nowhere near comprehensive, it provides some insight into people using their wealth to attack democracy, justice, and equality, and take what is left of the “American Dream” for themselves.

You can’t talk about shills for the wealthiest Americans without Reagan, the Poster Monster for trickle-down fraud in the United States.

This occurs at the individual level (as set forth in the cases below), or at the corporate or industry level. For example, a corporation that lobbies to weaken unions while paying their workers below poverty level wages -forcing their workers to apply for taxpayer-subsidized food stamps, housing, and healthcare. They are shifting their employee costs to us, thereby generating more profit, more executive bonuses, more equity value and dividends to shareholders. This is an example of an externality. It is legalized theft.

Or an industry that pollutes the region around their plants or refineries causing an impoverished community to suffer respiratory disease, cancer, or other horrific medical conditions -treated in emergency rooms, which are then paid by taxpayers. These are examples of externalities -a sinister hidden tax that most people are unaware of -and when you hear of politicians talking about the deregulation of an industry -they are really talking about higher hidden taxes for all of us, again an example of an externality.

Barre Seid

Seid recently gave $1.6 Billion to to a “social welfare organization”, effectively a dark money group working to shift the judicial system to be ultra-conservative. Think of the courts everywhere in the United States filled with incompetent, biased “judges” and justices like Aileen Cannon, Matthew Kacsmaryk, Alito, Thomas, Kavanaugh, and Coathanger-Barrett leading to more decisions like “Citizens United”, overturning Chevron, overturning Roe v. Wade, and elevating a President to being above the law.

• https://www.propublica.org/article/barre-seid-heartland-institute-hillsdale-college-gmu

• https://www.propublica.org/article/dark-money-leonard-leo-barre-seid

Elon Musk

Elon Musk has said he’s not writing monthly $45 Million dollar checks to a convicted felon. However, Musk says a lot of things when he’s not destroying social media sites like Twitter, or moving his HQ and manufacturing facilities to places where there is limited concern about worker health and safety. One thing is certain -if you are a narcissist with a near-infinite supply of wealth -you’ll have media hanging off of every ill-informed opinion you have.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/article/2024/jul/15/elon-musk-trump-super-pac

Peter Thiel

Thiel was a co-founder of PayPal, Palantir Technologies, and was the first outside investor in Zuckerberg’s Facebook. He continues to fund extreme candidates like JD Vance and Blake Masters in order to accumulate more wealth regardless of societal outcomes.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/oct/15/peter-thiel-who-is-he-republican-donor-tech-entrepreneur

Charles Koch

The remaining Koch brother has been involved in many so-called conservative “think tanks” -where the desired finding is printed first, and then a group of well-educated, exceptionally well-paid “analysts” support the finding with beautiful charts and graphs. Climate change a liberal hoax! Yes sir, we’ll get right on that. Clean coal safe AND delicious… we’ll have that on your desk soon. Trickle-down economics makes everyone wealthy! -here you go! Just another climate action-denying billionaire electing climate-denying candidates. Nothing to see here.

Larry Ellison

Larry changed technology and I’m at a loss as to how someone as smart as he once was doesn’t know when enough is enough. Larry -if you want more, innovate. Stop trying to destroy the American system by funding corruption, incompetence, and extremism.

https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/oracles-ellison-joined-nov-2020-call-about-contesting-trumps-defeat-2022-05-20/

Harlan Crow

The billionaire behind “Justice” Thomas and his lobbyist wife Ginni’s fabulous and luxurious gifts, just because.

Trump/Big Oil

Just as Betsy DeVos is the poster monster of Student Loan Debt greed, Trump is the poster monster of a fake capitalist. He inherited his wealth from his racist father (https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/28/us/politics/donald-trump-housing-race.html), and then bankrupted businesses and casinos somehow, while improbably turning the Trump name into a gold-plated façade/brand. Now the name Trump is just synonymous with political extremism and fraud. His attempted “quid pro quo” with Big Oil -effectively give me a billion dollars and drill anywhere you want is beyond the pale (of course it’s disappeared from mainstream view, however if you are keeping track -Trump’s extortionist leanings were present on his “perfect call” with Volodymyr Zelenskyy -when Trump was withholding vital defensive military capability in exchange for dirt or a fake investigation on the Biden family. (Remember that?)

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jun/03/trump-big-oil-campaign-pitch-corruption

Vladimir Putin

A murderous thug with seemingly infinite wealth. The oligarch’s oligarch. Suffice to say that when he is ended, the world will be a safer place for all.

https://time.com/6165963/putin-money-bill-browder/

Betsy DeVos/Prince Family

The DeVos/Prince family, from my perspective, is a perfect case study for a proactive 95% inheritance tax -that could then be used to pay off student loan debt. (Who doesn’t love irony?)

https://www.forbes.com/sites/chasewithorn/2019/07/24/inside-betsy-devos-billions-just-how-rich-is-the-education-secretary/

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/09/the-strange-ascent-of-betsy-devos-and-erik-prince

The Walton Family/WalMart Heirs

The way to split $247 billion is to pay $244 billion in taxes and split the rest.

They’ve contributed to the Heritage Foundation (Project 2025), and, along with Betsy DeVos are working to advocate for vouchers and private K-12 schools, because nothing says “freedom” like WalMart Elementary where you can learn about the destructive forces of unions and why you should not have to stipulate a “minimum” wage in a “free market” economy. WalMart -by destroying Main Street in small towns across the United States with their big box stores filled with impoverished workers and “low low prices” are a case study in one of the sinister sides of capitalism.

Robert and Rebekah Mercer

If the Mercers sound familiar -they became infamous due to their investment that drove the conduit between Facebook and Cambridge Analytica -which played a prominent role in elevating the criminal Trump in 2016, as well as Brexit.

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/03/cloak-and-data-cambridge-analytica-robert-mercer/

https://www.wsj.com/articles/james-simons-robert-mercer-others-at-renaissance-to-pay-7-billion-to-settle-tax-probe-11630617328

https://eu.democratandchronicle.com/story/news/politics/albany/2017/11/09/robert-mercer-reclaim-new-york/107310096/

American Monster — Robert Mercer

Miriam Adelson

Miriam Adelson is “all-in” for Trump. She is a prominent pro-Israel billionaire and major GOP donor, has been a strong supporter of West Bank settlements and expansion. Her support extends beyond financial contributions, as she has been actively involved in initiatives that promote the annexation of the West Bank. It is interesting to me that the two political figures who are continuing to provoke the most violence and instability in the Middle East are Netanyahu and Trump. It is totally logical for Netanyahu -he knows that if there is a secure ceasefire and peace, he will be removed from office and tried for fraud, breach of trust, and bribery. If he creates a situation, provoking violence and hostility from multiple adversaries, he is simply using Israelis and Palestinians in his own deadly game. There are parallels between Netanyahu and Trump, as Trump is also imperiled by multiple criminal cases. Winning the election for Trump is not about “Making America Great Again” or “Making White Christians Great Again” or “Make Women Birth Vessels Again” or whatever his political tagline is. For Trump it is all about staying out of prison (or having to flee to a non-extradition country, like Russia).

See more about billionaire Miriam’s $100 Million dollar plan to elect the convicted felon: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/25/us/politics/miriam-adelson-trump-israel.html

Phil Knight

The State of Oregon would always yield interesting State and Local Governance philosophy. Even in the past, when in GOP control (the old GOP, not the extremist, corrupt, criminal organization they’ve become over the last several years), voters and their leadership were generally pragmatic environmental conservationists (notwithstanding the early dances with statewide racism and “Sundowner laws”).

During my memorable time in Oregon, I had the honor and pleasure of working with dedicated Statehouse Representatives like David Gomberg, State Senator Arnie Roblan, U.S. Senator Jeff Merkely, AG Ellen Rosenblum, and others. I even had a side meeting advocating for the Iran P5+1 Nuclear Agreement with Senator Ron Wyden (who was on the fence at the time). The politics of Oregon turned as the State GOP became infected with MAGA extremism. (See: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jun/28/how-republican-senators-killed-oregons-climate-crisis-bill).

In spite of the extremism, Phil Knight continued to work against climate, against reasonable gun violence prevention, and other pragmatic law and policy through his attempts to expend massive wealth and buy the Governor’s seat and/or State Legislature. Another case study in someone who has accumulated too much and is now directing his resources at acquiring more -while making everyone else’s life that much worse.

https://www.opb.org/article/2022/09/29/nike-co-founder-phil-knight-spends-big-oregon-legislature-republican-candidates/

Generational Wealth and a Global Tax

This is a very important area of concern. By passing a massive inheritance from one generation to the next, the inherited wealth represents outsized political power in the hands of heirs who likely have no understanding as to the plight of an ordinary life, carefully budgeting, working to afford a home, food, healthcare, while trying to help improve the quality of life and future for their children and grandchildren. Why would someone want public healthcare? Why would someone care about rent control -don’t they buy their homes? Public education -how gauche and uncivilized. Sure, climate change is causing extreme weather events -but just buy another house in a different climate. Pull yourselves up by your bootstraps. The bus? The subway? Ewwww. Who uses that??? Why do we need Social Security and Medicare -don’t these people save money for retirement?

The GOP’s assault on estate taxes (and they call them death taxes -because we all die, but not everyone has an estate!) is part of a long-term strategy to undermine democracy. By concentrating wealth toward a new generation “unencumbered” with the perspectives of an ordinary life, the GOP has a ready-made class of large high-net worth donors/investors ready to advocate for private schools/vouchers, privatization or erosion of funding for mass transportation, and even Social Security and Medicare.

• https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/apr/03/all-billionaires-under-30-have-inherited-their-wealth-research-finds

• https://www.icij.org/investigations/panama-papers/

• https://www.theguardian.com/news/series/paradise-papers

Massive wealth inequality -and the offshoring of vast riches (readily convertible to political power anywhere in the world) makes any societal aspiration of democracy improbable. Wealth should be earned -and we should celebrate the courage, vision, and innovation when it is. However, wealth accumulation (when not used to drive societal value) and wealth transfers must be rigorously taxed on a global scale. Doing so can improve the human condition everywhere, allow meaningful democracies to form and thrive, and yield a more peaceful, equitable, and secure world for all.

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