Plutocrats

The subtitle of this book is "The Rise of the new global super rich and the fall of everyone else."

I bought this book at the bookstore in the Pike Place Market. It was a featured used book at the front of the store. Somehow, I thought it was going to be a Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. It was not.

The book, written in 2012, describes the economic and political forces that brought us our current economy -- the one that works for a few much better than it works for anyone else. It was really interesting. A few things I learned

There are 40,000 HNWI (high net worth individuals) in the US. This means they are worth $30 million dollars or more. Most of the super rich today are the working rich meaning they benefitted from a combination of globalization and technology (the internet, big data) rather than those who inherited wealth 100 years ago. Although the author points out that in a generation or two, those people will be handing down their money creating a large class of idle rich.

The number of billionaires has increased across the globe. Russians benefitted from privatization and knowing the right people. The Chinese did the same.  One interesting fact about Chinese billionaires is they all must remain in the good graces of the Chinese communist party. In the last 20 years, 13 Chinese billionaires have been executed.

The rise of authoritarianism is also explained. No happy news there but there is a link between the super rich and the US propaganda network. I was surprised (sort of) to learn that even the wealthy who support some traditional Democratic party values tend to want to keep the system as it is. All believe they've earned their good fortune through effort rather than systemic advantages. The fact that only a few of these people are women or people of color should make these people question their assertions.. but of course, it only reinforces it.

So, not great.