What's particularly striking is how the US, long perceived as a champion of democracy and fair play, has become a playground for these oligarchs, Russian or otherwise. The article poignantly highlights how the US itself is nurturing a similar class of uber-rich individuals who mirror the opulence and influence of their Russian counterparts. The description of the Amadea, with its lavish amenities and tangled ownership web, underscores the extravagance that symbolizes the detachment of these oligarchs from the realities of everyday people.
Submission statement b/c I know Mother Jones gets pilloried as a source by some on here:
This article is a thought-provoking piece that compares today's American billionaires (many of whom have made their fortunes in tech) to the Russian oligarchs that came about post-USSR and the former US uses of the term in the pre Civil War and Gilded Age.
It's an interesting thought piece and speaks well towards how the current class of US ultra-rich got there, and spend their wealth on passion projects and chosen philanthropic endeavors while contributing to the squeeze on the lower and middle class citizens mainly due to our tax code taxing on income and not wealth, and the loopholes that allow them to pay taxes as desired.
In addition to having read several billionaire authors reiterate some form of "what we GOT AWAY WITH in the 80's/90's, you couldn't dream of accomplishing anymore," a son of a Tiger Cub once got drunk and blabbed a bit too much about the insanity of money/insanity (recalled from an 80's child's POV).
I attended college on a 19th Century Robber Barron -funded scholarship, to which I am forever grateful... but there just doesn't ever seem to be a reason to concentrate so much wealth so quickly, undertaxed or not. I read this old cranky bastard's Last Will & Testament and he was just a spiteful, bitter old man that hated his entire existance.
The analogy of pouring the water into the soup is really catchy. Oligarchs spending money to convince society that the society should absorb various costs and accept increasing fiscal pressure. You will not receive any certification or credibility from institutions controlled by them if you're not a believer.
I have a foolproof plan to deplete the wealth of the American oligarchs: stop coveting what they have. Bezos is super rich not because he has a huge pile of cash, but because he owns a slice of Amazon. If people just refused to buy his stock, the price would drop immensely and he would be worth far less.
You're right that he's rich because he owns part of Amazon. You're not right that a stock price fall would make him not-rich.
The textbook way to price stocks is at the present value of future cash flows. That is, the company does make money, or will in the future, that can be returned to shareholders. Amazon takes in a ton of money, turns a profit, and could return some of that money to Bezos for him to spend. (Whether or not they actually do is a tax law triviality.) It wouldn't matter if the shares were priced at $1 or $1000, they would theoretically return the same cash to Bezos for him to spend, which is why he would still be rich.
He would still be rich, but not as crazy rich. And if he did want to return money to the share holders, it would come at the cost of reducing reinvestment into the company, probably lessening their moat.
