The Hatred of Billionaires

“The mass of the rich and the poor are differentiated by their incomes and nothing else, and the average millionaire is only the average dishwasher dressed in a new suit.” -George Orwell

Introduction

There seem to be a few of us amongst the middle class, at least in America, that have a certain disdain for the rich. I decided to title this essay with a certain depiction towards billionaires only to illustrate the extreme and hopefully clarify the sentiment, but I'm sure that those same people who detest billionaires also aren't too fond of those with a net worth of $999,999,999. I'm not sure if this has always been a thing, but given my little knowledge and unrefined intuition of human nature, I would guess that there's always been people who believe that the bourgeoisie or royal class could only be evil, malevolent tyrants who stole their wealth and are undeserving of their status and power.

I've had quite a few conversations recently with peers and colleagues who dish out criticism towards Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and the like. These friends in my circle are far from poor. They share concerns about the dispossessed, but their actions do not match their level of semantic sincerity. To top it off, they often reap the benefits of the products and services generated by the so-called exploiters of the masses. It would be one thing if these individuals that I'm acquainted with were devoting their lives to the amelioration of poverty and fighting the corruption of the elite in service of the victims. Given that their actions would be aligned with their words, I wouldn't have to much to ponder about. However, what interests me is the discordance between the two. Perhaps I'm a pessimist, but it's as if they only want to appear as intellectually and morally superior to the one percent without actually doing any of the work.

As I'm growing as a writer, one of the focuses that I want to hone in on is explicating multiple sides of a point. I see this recent interest of mine as an opportunity to embody the perspectives of the rich, my colleagues, and that of my own to see if I can develop a high-resolution narrative that coherently explains my experiences. Can I stand objectively and analyze some possible trends of the elite class and their impact on society? Can I steelman, instead of strawman, the perspective of my peers? Could I then take the perspectives and cast a judgement that, while still flawed, will at least be sound in argumentation? Exploring these questions are what I want to attempt in this essay.

The Rich Are Evil

Is it true that some members of the elite class obtained their wealth by stealing it from the poor or uneducated? Could it be that some members of the elite class exponentially increase their riches through corrupt, unfair, and unjust means? Is there also a possibility that these people are taken over by the spirits of greed and power and are therefore morally unfit for their great influence and advantages? There is no doubt that there is a degree of affirmation in each of these questions. In a world filled with much suffering, tragedy, and malevolence, it seems rational to localize the source of all of this pain into a handful of people to not only simplify matters but to also identify the target for activism.

The image of slavery comes to mind as an example of a few tyrannical elites benefitting from the torture and atrocity of the many. Whether it be Jewish slavery, African American slavery, or the situation in the mines of the Congo, the average person of the West believes it to be wrong for the minority of a so-called upper class to take advantage of a population. Headlines of the horrid working conditions at Amazon tap into this emotionally charged morality and call forth the social justice warrior in us. Most people want to live in a society where people can have safe, reasonable working conditions where they can do good work and be compensated appropriately. When this ideal is violated, it must to some degree reflect the arrogance and rapaciousness of the C-suite.

Let's assume Elon Musk, who has a net worth of over $200B, could end homelessness for veterans in America for $20B. Is he not selfish and evil for deciding to do anything else with his money other than provide for others? Given that he's aware of this immense agony among the veteran population, is he not morally obligated to do something about it? One plausible conclusion is that he simply has decided to prioritize his own egocentric desires. No amount of good he's done on the environmental, energy and power, and economic front with the creation of jobs can overshadow his great oversight. This is only one example of all the good the rich could do if they just gave away their excess money, yet we consistently see them choose to look the other way. This must be a clear indication of their reprehensibility.

To top it off, the elite also rig the entire system so that they can remain in power. They buy politicians, make deals with their competitors, and setup conditions where only they or those immediately below can succeed. This gigantism and collusion make it near impossible for the average working class citizen to get ahead in life. It also is a major obstacle to any type of social reform that would be bad for business. Why would those in power want a more educated and more self-sustaining populace when they can have swarms of dependent consumers as a steady stream of income? Why cure the patient when you can profit off keeping them just barely alive? From this perspective, one can get how people can develop animosity towards those in power.

Everyone Is Inadequate

Now that we've tried to adopt the viewpoint of someone who truly thinks that the richest among us are evil and that people are right to hate them, what are some other reasons why people would hate billionaires? Not everyone dislikes them. Most people probably don't even care about them. There's a small subset of the population whose attention is not only drawn to those in the elite class, but they also look at them in a negative light. What is it about this peculiar group that drives them to come away with their conclusions given that other people who encounter the same set of facts, the existence of billionaires, don't feel the same contempt?

One reason could be a disintegrated personality. Let's assume that everyone has a sense of their own mortality, malevolence, and insufficiencies. Some people project this onto others who are doing better than them as a form of personal suppression and willful ignorance to their own short comings. The knowledge of the line between good and evil that runs through each individual's heart, to take from Solzhenitsyn, could be thought of as psychic energy that cannot be destroyed. Some people contend with this energy by integrating it into their lives productively. This creates a deep empathy, high levels of grace, and appreciation for their fellow human beings. Those who fail to properly integrate their shadow, as Jung would say, fail to understand what it truly means to be human. They believe they are different in kind from others, not just in degree. So, when they see someone of what they believe to be reprehensible moral character, their lack of empathy facilitates hatred and disgust.

Another reason that some people hate billionaires could be to signal their unearned virtue. Just as people posted a black square or a Ukraine flag on social media to "show their support" without actually doing any of the work, people will criticize the wealthy instead of actually helping the dispossessed. They get their self-gratification without any of the dirty work that costs time, money, and forces the adoption of risk. They may be high in the dark personality trait narcissism, so they truly think that they should hold a status in society that's higher than the one they currently inhabit. Combine this with low conscientiousness, and you have the ingredients of a selfish, lazy person who wants all of the glory and to be seen as a competent intellectual.

Conclusion

There is an arbitrariness to life that makes people bitter and resentful. Their self-loathing and anger can blind them to the fact that there's always someone who has it worse than them and yet is doing better than them. Of course, the reverse is also true. In my mind, these two versions of the same framing point to the fact that there's something constant across environments and levels of luck that account for how the situation will turn out, and I believe that constant to be personal character. It's hard to be good. It's easier to tear someone or an ideal down rather than rise to meet it.

It's interesting that early in life, people praised hard work, the creation of value, and commensurate compensation. As we get older and the compensation increases, the attention on hard work seems to stagnate or even reverse. The more money someone makes, the less likely it is that they are working hard and the more likely it is that they oppress people and become tyrannical thieves. Where exactly does this shift occur? If I become an entrepreneur on the side while working a regular nine to five job, some people may view that as being disciplined and having high aspiration. However, once my side hustle takes off and increases my income one-hundred-fold, I'm all of a sudden a different person.

At the same time, we have to give the devil his due. Injustices do occur, and many people fall victim to the temptation of power and influence at the cost of their soul. Some people who grew up being victimized become tired of feeling weak, so when an opportunity presents itself for them to increase their status, even by malevolent means, they take it. Take this desire for wealth and juxtapose it with the belief that taking a small portion from the extremely rich could help ameliorate so much suffering, and you have the makings of a modern day Raskolnikov. Just as the elite take the personhood out of the lower classes and reduce them down to labor metrics, the social activists reduce the rich to sources of wealth that should rightfully belong to all.

There are dangers to the unconstrained excesses of each viewpoint. There's also a bit of truth in each. The best way to move forward, regardless of which side you fall on, is to be mindful of two things. The first is that there is much evil in your own heart. The second is that other humans are just like you, flawed, broken, and capable of great redemption. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. believed that wealth in itself was amoral, and that it was the idolatry of wealth that led people astray. He also believed that we could fight against evil ideas, such as class-based guilt, and still love mankind. Injustices and tragedies spring up in the world regardless of level of wealth, profession, race, gender, or age. Our job as a society should be to ameliorate them by first looking inward and attending to our sins before casting judgement on our fellow brothers and sisters.