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Billionaires are an ultra-elite social class whose numbers are growing alongside their obscene wealth while others struggle, suffer or even die.
They represent a scourge of economic inequality, but how do they get away with it? A set of dangerous and deceptive inter-connected myths portrays them as a ‘force for good’:
- the ‘heroic billionaire’ asserts they are gallant protagonists of the American Dream gone global
- the ‘generous billionaire’ pretends that their philanthropic efforts and personal good deeds should be lauded for generosity and benevolence
- the ‘meritorious billionaire’ insists that extreme wealth is a worthy reward for individual hard work and talent
- the ‘vigilante billionaire’ claims to be able to solve the world’s biggest problems where bureaucrats and politicians have failed.
Each of these myths enables billionaire wealth and power to set us back to old-style feudalism and plutocracy.
Offering a trenchant critique, this incisive book testifies to the growing international political will to take concrete actions in supporting economic justice and democratic equality.
“Rhodes makes a cogent case that billionaires undermine democratic values by wielding their wealth while remaining unaccountable to people affected by their decisions.” Publishers Weekly
"Argues well against those who anti-democratically exercise the power that can come with, if not outright be purchased by, being a billionaire and among the better of several recent progressive critiques of, well, billionairehood." The Giving Review
Foreword by Joel Bakan
Preface
1. The Righteous Rich
2. Money and Power
3. The Myth of the Heroic Billionaire
4. The Myth of the Generous Billionaire
5. The Myth of the Meritorious Billionaire
6. The Myth of the Vigilante Billionaire
7. Reasons for Hope