The Value of Billionaires

The Value of a Billionaire 

 

Do we need billionaires for role models to show the rest of us that the American dream is alive and well and that with a little luck and a small loan from a family member we can all rise to the top, spread our wealth and do good deeds?  In any good revolution they, the wealthy, are generally the first to get shot, maybe because we revere and hate them at the same time, a true love/hate scenario.  Billionaires are not the root of all evil, but the accumulation of wealth into small groups, the so called 1% is likely where evil begins. 

Sadly, the reality is such that the Middle-Class has been reduced and its buying power diminished while quality of life is also decreasing, but despite all of this we can take great joy and comfort in the fact that the world has been blessed with 660 new billionaires, bringing the total to 2755 world-wide.  In fact, most of these new billionaires gained their increases in good fortune during the festive and productive years of Covid.  It seems as most of the world was suffering and millions of people died from the disease, as in some parts of America bleach was in short supply, the pandemic for some reason didn’t magically go away as promised. 

One school of thought, at least for billionaires like Elon Musk, who is able to receive carbon credits for his production of the Tesla, which helps towards profitability as they act as a subsidy against manufacturer costs.  Musk- like wealth does create more innovation and produces jobs, some people go so far as to say why should the wealthy even pay taxes as they have contributed so much by just being.   

 

The best discussion point would be they use the country’s infrastructure, health care, educational system, work force, government protection, subsidies and protection to work their little miracles.  Billionaire entrepreneurs do not operate in a vacuum.  All of the supports and structure they use from the public domain to build their empires has to at some point be supported by a tax base.  Many of these large corporations such as Amazon, Apple, Google and others can and do avoid taxes.  One popular mechanism for this, in addition to off shore accounts is to establish their head office in another country like Ireland and as a result pay 13 % tax while the American “branch Offices” pay royalties to the head office as a method of saving even more tax.  The goal to extreme wealth is government dependencies, numerous tax loops and a high degree of ethical lapses.  This represents true capitalistic talent! 

 

Large corporations do not share their wealth with employees.  Extreme wealth has risen by 13% since 2010 with a leap during the Covid years.  Roughly for every new billionaire about a million people dipped into poverty.  Employees of Amazon, MacDonald’s and Walmart depend on food stamps and other government assists and programs to survive.  Companies call these benefits needed by their employees to survive a form of socialism something Republicans see as positioned on the political spectrum next to communism.  Ironically, any aid packages or subsidies received by corporations are not socialism but termed or viewed as a natural form of capitalism.  Unions are another foul-tasting word for corporations, the Walton family remains one of the richest globally and does everything in their power to shut down unions in their stores.  They would rather close a store, as they did in Quebec, then to let a union organize.  

 

The Giving Pledge consists of a group of billionaires pledged to giving away wealth.  It includes Bill and Melinda Gates, Warren Buffet and a few dozen others.  They are part of a generous minority.  Although after McKenzie Scott got her divorce from Mr. Bezos and became a billionaire in her own right, she gave close to 6 billion dollars to 500 different groups.  Bloomberg gave 330 million to Covid related causes, so there are some generous among the super-rich. 

 

 As an example, Bezos earns about 6 billion per month as we all buy his products globally his employees gained 7% in wages.  It seems unequitable and it is.  One must ask who creates the wealth the entrepreneur or the worker bees.  The actual productivity is from workers, usually underpaid in proportion to the profitability of the corporation.  The entrepreneur may be the idea man/woman and the reason d’etre for the product/idea but I would say the payout to CEO’s board members etc. is totally out of balance with what workers make.  If they gave back to society in the same way they take it would be a pill much easier to shallow. 

 

In Canada CEO generally make more in the first few days of the New Year then their employees do for the remainder of the year.  Yet we believe that people should be paid according to their contribution to the economy; so, when a sports star signs a half billion-dollar contract many of us think he deserves this for either hitting, throwing or kicking a ball of some sort.  It is fun to fantasize about wealth, about having great wealth, it is part of our lottery culture.  But the sad reality is we perpetuate a disparate and cruel system and perpetuate inequity.  Wealth does not trickle down and certainly not as we are led to believe. But maybe instead of revering the super-rich we might mildly respect them after they pay their social share of taxes for social causes, which does not include ego-based space joy rides.