from the book On Corruption in America by Sarah Chayes:
We reinforce better values by ceasing to assume that if someone is spectacularly rich, he must be smarter and more hardworking than the rest of us. Instead, we should view such people with suspicion. If there is one thing work on this book has taught me, it is this: it is impossible to become a billionaire without bending the rules. Most of the members of that class run their operations and live their lives in ways that injure our communities. Most are trying to rig the system even further. These are not upstanding citizens. They are parasites and freeloaders—however they try to justify themselves. We do not owe them deference.
We can do this. We are our society. We can make it reflect the beauty in us. We don't have to wait for the next devastating calamity that lies on the horizon to discover, in survival, that precious communion. We can find it now, in the battle to ward off that calamity. We can find that fierce joy.
from an article on billionaires by Caitlin Johnstone published on October 31:
Human civilization is being engineered in myriad ways by an unfathomably wealthy class who are so emotionally and psychologically stunted that they refuse to end world hunger despite having the ability to easily do so.
The United Nations has estimated that world hunger could be ended for an additional expenditure of $30 billion a year, with other estimates considerably lower. The other day Elon Musk became the first person ever to attain a net worth of over $300 billion. A year ago his net worth was $115 billion. According to Inequality.org, America's billionaires have a combined net worth of $5.1 trillion, which is a 70 percent increase from their combined net worth of under $3 trillion at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic.
So we're talking about a class which could easily put a complete halt to human beings dying of starvation on this planet by simply putting some of their vast fortunes toward making sure everyone gets enough to eat. But they don't. This same class influences the policies, laws, and large-scale behavior of our species more than any other.*
*a link – or not; see a note on notes and links and a disclaimer / … and maybe browse or search the archive*
it is impossible to become a billionaire without bending the rules / Sarah Chayes (!gb)
see also: articles by Caitlin Johnstone on Substack ! (!?)