Opinion | How billionaires are exploiting a world in crisis, and laughing all the way to the bank
- It is no coincidence that as the world grows more embattled, billionaires are getting richer – this is how ‘Davos Man’ operates
- Davos Man claims he will use his wealth to save the world, while devising new ways to exploit workers, avoid taxes and become ever richer
Divide and conquer – this strategy has worked for centuries. Americans’ full-throated participation is required as we blame each other for everything, from job losses to political defeats to the rising costs of living.
Meanwhile, the real culprits, the cabal of greedy billionaires that manipulate the international economic system – and, consequently, the futures of the rest of us taxpayers – laugh all the way to the banks, which, of course, they also own.
Red versus blue. Democrat versus Republican. Rural versus urban. Educated versus the uneducated. In the same cynical manner that imperialists carved up Africa and the Middle East for pilfering, and in the same disastrous way in which England divided India after gutting its resources, the billionaires of this world will stop at nothing in their unquenchable desire to squeeze every last dollar from our beleaguered planet.
I hadn’t quite connected all the dots until I read Davos Man: How the Billionaires Devoured the World, Peter Goodman’s devastating examination of these male elites, who care not a whit for the future of democracy, the environment or sustainable living conditions.
Their loyalty is not to any particular country, unless it is a nation that can shelter their ill-gotten gains with low to non-existent taxes. In that way, these masters of the universe are stateless.