Why We Worship Billionaires
And why we must snap out of it
He’s the man
We worship wealth. We also worship “independent genius.” We worship the boy genius, whiz kid, technical, innovative wizard, self-made man. We want to be just like them. We imagine they work so hard for what they do, and the rewards are private jets, mansions, superb respect, massive wealth, and status. We read and hear their stories.
How billionaire “so and so” does it, and so can you.
We read he’s a workaholic. He sleeps three hours a night. He makes the most out of being in the right moment. He has high standards so he only dates supermodels, or at least, younger trophy wives. He seizes the day. He is an admired celebrity. He snaps up the best tech innovations and the most brilliant engineers.
What don’t we hear?
We don’t hear who does his laundry. We don’t hear about who keeps his pristine and otherworldly landscape. We don’t hear who buys his groceries. Who takes care of his children. Who cleans his toilet.
My theory is this: we workers of the world don’t want to be cleaning toilets for the rest of our lives, so we think we would rather be the rich, respected, billionaire.
I am guessing for every multi-millionaire out there who loves the admiration, accolades and money, there is an army of at least a hundred people doing the labor that maintains him and his lifestyle.
For the mega-rich, of course, they are propped up by thousands of workers who give the billionaire his “self-made” genius status. Also, they are propped up, too, by the millions, if not billions, of consumers who are bonded now to their often monopolized products. It’s almost impossible to support your local mom and pop shop when everyone tells you to get it cheaper, (and over night!) from Amazon, etc.
There is nothing glamorous about the actual house-keeping and dirty diapers that most of us do each and every day. There are no puff pieces on shows or articles that adoringly admire those who do the real work.
R-E-S-P-E-C-T
We want not just comfortable lives, as human beings. We want respect. We crave acceptance by our peers. We work hard and we want more than just “making a living” for it.
Selling tons of unsustainable junk, programming us with non-stop advertising, and basically reminding us to be better by buying X, Y, and Z, we are stuck fast to the sticky web of being food for those benefit from our willingness to participate in the dream of finally “making it.”
The simple magic dust of illusion that you too can have great wealth and status keeps us as cogs in gears, and on our treadmills.
There are other pieces that keep us in our place. Patriarchy. Racism. Exploitation of public resources that become privately owned. Oil, land, steel, coal, cobalt, attention span, your clicks, the rainforest.
And there is this: many assertive men who make the grade are actually aggressive bullies.
That big beautiful wall, a tiny parable from real life
Ever met a billionaire? The one time we did, he made an offer on our (my parent’s) home. He had just bought four or five other houses on our street. He wanted the whole street. It made him that much “bigger”, and a very important person in this community, the neighbors cooed.
He provided so many jobs to the neighborhood! Why, even last week he hired twelve new contractors and six security guys to work on the new pool house, cabana, out-buildings and landscape that he was developing.
Long story shorter, when we told him “no” to his absurdly low offer, he began sending us E-mail messages that we had to cut down the swaying palms in our yard because the next really big storm would surely have them fall across his ten foot wall (one he built that effectively cut off beach access to the whole community) and those tree tops might harm his new pool house.
When I politely told him “no, the trees have been there for years with no problems, ever,” He told us, not so politely, that there could be “serious, legal consequences” if we didn’t cut down the trees.
We killed our trees.
A regular person of modest means cannot afford to go to court with someone of almost limitless means. Who even has the time, much less the money?
This was a devastating event for me, but just another Tuesday for him.
I am certain that getting his way is the routine, the norm, the default, for a man who is as VIP as he is. (And he is only a “moderate” billionaire, who only has about one thousand million dollars).
He had, metaphorically, and literally, built a wall between what he has freedom and power to do and what the rest of us peons have power to do.
Please keep in mind that most corporate billionaires make more than 300 times as much money as their workers’ wages pay.
Power plays, energy efficiency
In daily interactions, we all wish to have some influence and some power.
This notion is called justice, equality, or real opportunity, and it’s sorely lacking in our present system.
The system, as both Robert Reich and the Donald, have pointed out, is rigged.
It’s just that they blame the rigging on different engines of energy.
One guy, RR, notes that wealth disparity is growing in a falsely gilded age that keeps the “have nots” working harder and harder to become “the haves”.
The other “billionaire” notes that if you are failing, in this sweet, sweet land of opportunity it’s because of them (any scapegoat) who don’t share your faith in the greatness of how greatly great we are. Or, maybe you should work harder.
One of these guys is lying.
