Comments by "Nigel Johnson" (@nigeljohnson9820) on "Wealth of world's 10 richest men has doubled during COVID pandemic, says Oxfam" video.
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@CantHandleThisCanYa there are a number of examples of this happening in the past, notable the french and russian revolutions. No doubt the ultra rich will attempt to protect themselves with private armies, or similar security arrangements.
They already seek to live in palatial isolation, some owning their own islands. The fewer they are in number, the easier it becomes to strip them of their wealth. One might expect that such moves would be associated with the complete breakdown of the economic system, where the value of money is no longer honoured, but it could be a pest dramatic event imposed by taxation applied by a radical government. To be effective it really would need to be applied globally. This is ironic, as it is globalisation that is fueling the wealth gap. But it is not impossible that as the wealth of these individuals exceeds the wealth of nations, that even governments take the view that enough is enough, and implement tax polices that shave the top 90% off the wealth of these people.
Governments have implemented windfall taxes in the past. It might not even be necessary to target the individual, a change in the taxation rules could clip the ability of these people to grow their wealth by their current abuse of the existing system.
Comments like the above might be considered as the politics of envy, but they are in fact more a reaction to the politics of excessive greed.
I suspect that some billionaires have seen the writing on the wall, and are responding by setting up charitable foundations, such as that of Bill Gates, but not all are truly philanthropic, but just a smoke screen to cover yet more wealth accumulation or an attempt at vested self interest social engineering. The few only have power as a result of the tacit consent of the many. The ability to oppress the many ultimately relies on military power, but even this depends on a compliant military hierarchy. The generals of the dictatorships, who rob their country can only do so if their subordinates receive commensurate rewards. Wow betide the general who fails to pay his troops. The greater the wealth gap between the few and the many, the more untenable the position of the ultra rich becomes.
There is an astute observation in one of the Douglas Adams Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe books, where a society adopts the deciduous tree leaf as the basis unit of their currency. The folly being that come the autumn (fall), everyone becomes a millionaire with the surfeit falling leaves, unfortunately this significantly devalues the currency to nothing, creating hyperinflation. The satirical point is that that is how the global economy is heading, with the ultra rich being left with nothing more than the biggest pile of rotting leaf litter.
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