The media coverage of today’s billionaires from their business success to their space race competition is relentless. Yet, concentrated wealth has a long history; Collins characterizes it as a “dynastic tradition” – much old wealth has grown exponentially over the last forty years as well. The wealth dynasties have also been very active in protecting their assets, using political influence for the most favorable tax policies for wealth accumulation, owning and controlling mass media, and relying on financial expertise to hide wealth from public access. Modern-day feudalism is an apt analogy and harkens back to the “enclosure movement” in the late Middle Ages when the powerful landed class began its assault on the public realm. – Peter Clutterbuck
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“These wealthy billionaire families are less focused on starting businesses and more on “dynasty-building” and rent extraction — passing wealth on over multiple generations in a neo-feudal way. With this system being solidified, today’s billionaires will be tomorrow’s dynastic families. If the pattern persists for twenty years on the current trajectory, we will have even greater concentrations of hereditary wealth and power dominating our politics, economy, media, and philanthropy. Looks like feudalism, smells like feudalism.” […]
