It’s 2026 and Elon Musk became the first trillionaire in the world. Everyone on social media is talking about it. One group of meat riders is calling him someone who deserved it because he worked hard, whereas another group of communists complains he shouldn’t even be allowed to be a billionaire and that billionaires should be taxed heavily and so on and so forth.
But are billionaires really bad for the economy? The answer is, even though a lot of billionaires are assholes, being a billionaire alone does not make them an asshole. Let’s see how.
Imagine this scenario: say there are 10 astronauts in space and there are 10 Pop-Tarts. Every astronaut has a dollar in their pocket to trade, except one astronaut who has 10 dollars. These astronauts are hungry, so they are buying Pop-Tarts. Now the market price of one Pop-Tart tends to be 1 dollar, since that’s the maximum most of them can afford. Now, the astronaut with 10 dollars has 2 options. Either be a bitch and buy all the Pop-Tarts for himself or be reasonable and spend 1 dollar and buy only one Pop-Tart, which he deserves.
The above is just an example with a lot of caveats, but I hope you see where this is going. Being a billionaire is not a problem; consuming/spending like a billionaire is the problem. The concept of money itself is different from what most people think. Being a billionaire gives them power and control. But it’s up to them whether they abuse it or not. We can’t blame a big guy for having big arms, can we?
First, let’s see what money is. One major problem with the topic of inequality is that money is often treated as the resource itself. Money is more like a token; you want more, the government can print more anyway. Money is a claim on real resources. The real resources are land, labour, energy, materials, time, blah blah blah, whatever, you got my point.
Some people have an enormous amount of wealth on paper, but in real life, they spend like a cockroach. Whereas other people who are broke as shit buy unwanted expensive things on debt. For example, take Warren Buffett. The last time I checked, his net worth comes to around 140 billion, but he still drives his old Cadillac, eats at McDonald’s, and lives a modest life. No harm is done here. Whereas, take Mukesh Ambani, on the other hand. He owns Antilia, an estimated 2-billion-dollar house with 27 floors, just so that a few people can live there. As you see, this is abuse.
Imagine all the cars, yachts, private jets, and properties that people like him own. They don’t come out of nowhere. Thousands of people work thousands of hours, putting their minds, sweat, and blood into building them, just so that they can flex in front of their guests. These resources could be put to better use elsewhere. Those cars are typically doing nothing, just being parked at their house. A real waste.
Also, personal consumption is not the only way billionaires abuse the system. Sometimes they do it in other ways, like spending a lot of money to promote certain political groups, pushing policies that affect the environment, taking credit for the work that their employees achieved in their workplace, influencing toxic culture among people, etc.
Another thing to mention is that it’s not always just billionaires. Millionaires, upper-middle-income, and even, in some cases, middle-income families exploit the economy. A lot of middle-income people own multiple houses that are not rented, own multiple cars when they don’t need them, and own unnecessarily expensive things. They also affect the economy.
Maybe we are criticizing the wrong thing here. Instead of criticizing people for being billionaires, criticize them for their personal and unnecessary spending. I think that’s the right way to do this. Being a billionaire gives you nearly unlimited tokens to spend, but no harm is done as long as you don’t spend them.
Anyway, if you can remember decent billionaires like Warren Buffett, mention them in the comments.
