From private jets to sprawling mansions to expensive jewelry, living a life of excess has long been glamorized. And this makes sense. A life of indulgence, lavishness, and above all, ease, seems like the ideal. However, many people are unaware of just how destructive and detrimental extreme wealth can be.
Wealth inequality is a primary reason why the uber-wealthy are harmful to society. It’s as the old saying goes:; the rich get richer, the poor get poorer. This creates an environment in which some people live in dangerous, impoverished conditions, while others get to live like kings.
According to the MU Journal of Economics, “By September of 2020, the wealth of American billionaires grew by 845 billion dollars, all while millions of Americans struggled with the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.” What makes this statistic especially egregious is the fact that there are approximately 2000 billionaires in the world. This means that combined, the wealth of only 2000 people was hundreds of billions of dollars.
In addition to that, the 20 wealthiest Americans are worth over 1 trillion dollars, or 1% of all American wealth. Essentially, 0.00000625% of the population owns 1% of the wealth. This means that these billionaires have around 160,000 times their proportional share.
Contrasted to all the people of the world living in squalor, the unabashed wealth hoarding of billionaires is simply disgusting. A statement from the University of Manchester reads: “The 26 richest individuals combined have the same amount of money as the poorest half of the human race, 3.9 billion people. Nearly all of those 3.9 billion live on less than $5.50 per day.” At this point, the growing wealth gap isn’t just a gap. It is a giant, gaping ravine.
Extremely wealthy people and corporations are also often at fault for exploiting their workers. According to Berkeley Haas EDU, “There is evidence of workers having to work overtime without pay, and evidence of suppression of labor organizing. Health and safety violations are common. There are also well-documented cases of some multinationals providing worse conditions to migrant workers than to local citizens.” Essentially, very wealthy people and corporations not only possess incredible wealth, they have exploited vulnerable people on a large scale in order to attain it.
In addition to widening the wealth gap, very rich people are also detrimental to the environment. According to Oxfam, “In 2019, the super-rich 1% were responsible for more carbon emissions than 66% of humanity (5 billion people). Since 1990, the richest 1% have used up more than twice as much of the carbon budget as 50% of the world’s lowest-income population.”
Through their destruction of the environment, uber-wealthy people and corporations cause lower-income countries to bear the brunt of the consequences that follow. Countries near the equator often suffer from extreme weather conditions and rising temperatures due to pollution and emissions caused by billionaires.
Unfortunately, the damage of ultra-wealthy people also extends to their social-emotional relationships and how they treat others. It has been evidenced that individuals with a higher income demonstrate lower levels of compassion and empathy than people with lower income. For example, an article by Berkeley Greater Good Magazine states: “People of lower economic status [are] better at reading others’ facial expressions. A UC Berkeley study found that in San Francisco—where the law requires that cars stop at crosswalks for pedestrians to pass—drivers of luxury cars were four times less likely than those in less expensive vehicles to give pedestrians the right of way. They were also more likely to cut off other drivers.” Rich people also tend to show less enjoyment and life satisfaction and higher rates of apathy.
All in all, it is sad that billionaires even exist in our world today. It is sad that they are lauded for their wealth. It is sad that they are immortalized and treated as something to aspire to, even as they allow poor countries to suffer and the environment to crumble. It is sad that they treat people as if they are disposable. And it is sad that all the power they wield, all the wealth they have accumulated, all the influence they have, goes towards further harming society.