Billionaires: Outlandish, excessive, abusive

Billionaires range from pop stars Selena Gomez and Taylor Swift to controversial technology tycoons Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, from politicians Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un to criminals Bernie Madoff and Samuel Bankman Fried. These billionaires share the same tax bracket, extravagant mansions and 10 figures of comfort and fortune. To be a billionaire is extremely rare, however; this status has been reached by few, it holds more negatives than positives, and 99.9 percent of the world suffer the consequences.

The act of accumulating wealth is not the issue; the problem is a disproportionate amount of money creating power to control entire populations. Billionaires create global inequities, contribute to climate change and disrupt democracy through unethical practices.

The majority of billionaires’ wealth is typically stolen or inherited rather than earned. Oxfam, a global organization working against poverty and injustice, reported that “about 60 percent of billionaire wealth comes from one of three sources: inheritance, cronyism and corruption, or monopoly power.” Such inheritance gives billionaires an aristocratic status and the ability to abuse power in political and economic spaces.

To put that into perspective, more than half of today’s living billionaires do not deserve their status; they are sourcing their money from luck, extortion, unethical practices or a combination of these factors, creating immense economic inequality. Billionaires rally for their taxes to be cut, which is greedy as taxes are meant to help communities: paying police officers, firefighters, teachers. Issued earlier this year, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act gave “the average family earning less than $50,000… about $250 in tax cuts in 2027, less than $1 a day,” while giving average tax filers who earn a million dollars or more a year, “over $100,000 in tax breaks,” according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

The extremely rich have a mentality of greed where they reserve money for themselves and keep a capitalist mindset where their privilege enables them.

Additionally, the way billionaires use their money has greatly aggravated climate change. Billionaires’ behavior promotes a lavish and luxury lifestyle, a prime example being the use of private jets and yachts. World renowned pop-star and billionaire Taylor Swift has faced immense backlash from her private jet usage. Carbon Market Watch reported that Swift’s private jet use in 2022 alone contributed 8,300 tonnes of carbon emissions. This is 1,800 times more than an average human’s emission. Although environmental footprint isn’t an exact lifetime usage, billionaires clearly exacerbate greenhouse gas pollution and climate change. Boats like yachts also have their contribution. For example, The New York Post reported that Jeff Bezos, the billionaire founder of Amazon, owns a super yacht called “Koru,” which contributes 7,154 tons of carbon emissions annually. In comparison, the average person only produces four to eight tons of carbon annually, according to The Nature Conservancy. Yachts also pollute the ocean, disrupting marine life and habitats.

This extravagant usage represents status: the purchase of a yacht or jet contributes to the buyer’s societal idea of high status through the recognition of material wealth.

Some may argue that high profile celebrities like Swift and Bezos need access to private acquisitions for their safety. Swift has a history and consistency of stalkers invading her privacy and putting her in danger. As privileged as it may sound, commercial air is not the safest option for her. Regarding Bezos, there have been enormous threats, blackmail and extortion surrounding his fortune. Like Swift, his privacy may be the deciding factor to his mortality. Despite privacy concerns, in 2022 Swift had no tours to do extensive travel, and the majority of her press was conducted virtually with the exception of New York Late Night Talk Shows. This means that the rest of her jet use was purely leisure, creating an amount of emission that is outrageous for purely leisure services. As for Bezos, although he needs to be kept safe from countless attempts of assault, he spends 2.7 million dollars a year on high security, and again like Swift his, reasons for constant marine-travel use was purely leisure. Again, billionaires using such extravagant uses of private transportation is an abuse of money, power and environment.

Finally, billionaires abuse their money to disrupt democracy, primarily through spending copious amounts of money on funding election campaigns, political action committees (PACs) and controlling media outlets. Wisconsin Public radio reported how billionaires voted in supreme court elections, with famous billionaire and founder of Tesla Elon Musk funding three million dollars to right wing attorney general Brad Schimel, a figure against LGBTQ+ rights, women’s reproductive rights and basic access to healthcare. Regarding PACs, democrats like George Soros, a democracy investor and billionaire, donated 170 million dollars to the democratic party during the 2022 Senate selection. This gave democrat politicians Adam Schiff and Sherrod Brown a major financial advantage over their opponents and access to more outreach resources. Billionaires have the ability to control the media and news. Patrick Soon-Shiong, a biotech billionaire, purchased The Los Angeles Times in 2018 for a 500 million dollar deal. According to the Los Angeles Times, this purchase did not stop at the times, as it included many Southern-Californian community papers, including the San Diego Union-Tribune. Despite the sale being in 2018 way before the 2024 election, his acquisition of The Los Angeles Times allowed him to fuel contribution to Trump’s campaign by not sponsoring his opponent Kamala Haris, which was not expected. The way billionaires use their money in a political and electoral campaign completely alter political outcomes with immense wealth.

Again, the mass wealth held by billionaires is often no reflection of hard work and perseverance; it is an example of privilege that leads to dire consequences for politics and the planet. Analyzing the way billionaires actually use their money is not to call-out or “eat the rich,” it is simply to highlight the societal inequalities that come with being a billionaire, while holding these people accountable.

A solution to these inequalities would be to place a cap on these billionaires, requiring excess funds to be redistributed for the public good. Nobody needs a billion dollars, regardless of their profession, and with today’s billionaires, their extreme wealth is not helping the majority. If a billionaire could donate their money to prevent themselves from reaching an extreme billionaire status, the amount of money would make a serious difference regarding various social issues. Donating to causes to stop world hunger, welfare and conflict relief would shape the direction of society to a better place. The road block against this is a very common theme among billionaires: greed. For example, in 2022 Elon Musk was met with this backlash against his wealth, in which he decided to say he would donate six billion dollars to the United Nations (UN), to solve world hunger. At the time six billion dollars was only two percent of his net worth. Nonetheless, this never happened. Musk wanted the UN to make a plan for him to make his donations equal and feasible, and although the UN did, he never followed through with the donation. 

When the poor use federal resources for food and shelter paid by taxes — including taxes from billionaires — billionaires see it as thievery, lazy and taking advantage of resources. But when billionaires can alter a socio-economic direction at the snap of their fingers, it is seen as business. Now why is that?