The Puzzle of the Temporarily Embarrassed Billionaire

We don’t talk about wealth the way we used to five or ten years ago. Occupy Wall Street changed the vernacular when the movement popularized the term “the one per cent” to describe a wealthy elite with supranational power and goals. Now the word “oligarchy” is making its way into mainstream discussions, and more people are beginning to pay attention to exactly what that all that money can buy: elections and governments. It’s not just the uber-wealthy who are pushing back against that narrative aggressively, though.

The crumbs from a billionaire’s table are feasts to a vassal class, which includes media and government. These people can do very well for themselves, and they don’t have to get leaned on particularly hard (or even at all sometimes) to put on their capes and fly to defense of their masters. It doesn’t stop there, though. A lot of average people with unremarkable jobs, subpar health insurance (if any at all), and no hope of receiving a pension are vociferous defenders of the billionaire class. I’ve always found it odd. I didn’t know there were so many people who thought it was possible to earn a billion dollars, much less to do it ethically. You have to break more than a few backs and exploit a whole lot of people to hoard that kind of wealth. Why are so many of the people whose backs are being broken on the side of the billionaire class?