Yesterday, writing for Bloomberg, Jeannine Amodeo reported that Elon Musk had pledged, on a conference call with the 7 banksters, led Morgan Stanley, helping him (to the tune of $13 billion of the $44 billion purchase price) finance the deal, to close his highly problematic Twitter acquisition by Friday.
Patriotic Millionaires, not happy that “one of the world’s most important communications platforms will be owned by the world’s richest man,” had a good analysis of why this is happening and what to expect going forward. “Musk’s decision to buy Twitter,” they warned, “will affect millions of people both here at home and around the globe. The platform has more than 450 million users, many of whom rely on it almost exclusively for news; Musk himself called it the “de facto town public square.” It’s clear that the alleged changes that the billionaire will make to the platform as its new head– most notably, lifting the account suspensions of former President Trump and other high-profile, right-wing figures– will undoubtedly have enormous global ramifications.”
And therein lies the problem with the astronomical concentration of wealth in the world today. Billionaires— oligarchs really— have enough money that they can buy, well, virtually anything. Twitter is a vitally important public communications platform, and any changes to its structure or moderation policies have wide-reaching consequences for the public debate and democracy, both here in the US and abroad. And yet a single individual— Elon Musk, by virtue only of being absurdly rich— can do with it whatever he wants, the world be damned.
The fact that one single person could have so much money as to buy out a communications platform for 450 million people is incredible. It would take the median American worker, working full time at $55,640 a year, no fewer than 790,797 years to make the $44 billion that Musk used to buy Twitter. This is longer than human beings have been on planet Earth.
But while Musk’s fortune is currently the largest in the world, the power dynamics of his buyout of Twitter aren’t unique. The unchecked growth of billionaire wealth in America today has led to countless instances of billionaires using that wealth to buy power and control the ways in which we conduct our private and public lives. (We examined this with you back in April when the news first broke, but feel that the subject is so important and timely that it’s worth highlighting again.)
Musk is by no means the only billionaire using his wealth in ways that greatly impact how our society is run. Look at Jeff Bezos and Rupert Murdoch, who own the Washington Post and Fox News, respectively. By owning these prominent media outlets, the two titans of industry essentially get to pick and choose what counts as news for all of us and what doesn’t. Rupert Murdoch, for instance, apparently did not think that the primetime January 6 hearings were “newsworthy” enough to broadcast over the summer on Fox News, a decision that left the right-wing network’s devoted viewership in the dark as to what really occurred on one of the darkest days in US history.
…Billionaires certainly use their wealth to purchase public power in these ways, but critically, they also use it to purchase political power. Which is why we really should stop saying “billionaire” and start saying “oligarch.” Since the 2010 Citizens United Supreme Court decision, billionaires have come to dominate the campaign finance scene in America. Between 2009 and 2021, the top twelve mega-donors gave a total of $3.4 billion to federal candidates and political groups, which accounted for $1 for every $13 spent in federal elections during that period.
…Billionaires’ political investments have certainly paid off, as public policy outcomes almost exclusively reflect the interests and preferences of wealthy Americans. We can see this in many policy areas, but especially in those related to the economy. Today, billionaires pay much lower effective tax rates than Americans who work for a living. CEO pay has skyrocketed while the minimum wage has stood frozen at $7.25 an hour. Ultra-profitable corporations join forces to create price-gouging monopolies, but working Americans are blocked from creating unions for better wages and working conditions.
Unchecked billionaire wealth and power is an existential crisis facing America today. Change needs to happen, and it needs to happen fast. We need to reform our campaign finance system to dilute the influence of big money, and we also need to safeguard our private institutions from being overwhelmed by billionaires’ voices and demands.
Even more importantly, however, we need to raise taxes on billionaires and strip them of the resources– i.e., their extreme wealth– that enable their power in the first place. President Biden’s Billionaire Minimum Income Tax and our own proposal, the OLIGARCH Act, are two major tax initiatives currently in play that would go a long way in this regard.
If billionaire oligarchs are an existential threat to our democracy and our society, there really isn’t any choice. We must tax these oligarchs in order to make them less rich.
Think about it. You likely don’t care how much money someone else has, but you very likely do care how much power someone else has. Tax Elon Musk and the other oligarchs, not to take away their money, but to take away their power.
Musk plans to slash Twitter’s force force by 75% from about 7,000 employees to 2,500. “While Musk has yet to comment on the most recent news, he reiterated his intention yesterday in a Twitter post for the social media platform to take a different approach towards content moderation and censorship. ‘Twitter should be as broadly inclusive as possible, serving as a fair forum for lively, even if occasionally rancorous, debate between widely divergent beliefs.’”
The American people aren’t celebrating the takeover:
Mexico exported 2.7 autos and tons and tons of auto parts manufactured by American companies in Mexico, taking advantage of cheaper labor costs and weak unions. Next company to offshore production to northern Mexico is Tesla. It was only a matter of time.
And speaking of scumbag billionaires who are bad for America, Brendan Pedersen reported for Punchbowl News yesterday that Elizabeth Warren and AOC— with support from Sheldon Whitehouse, Rashida Tlaib and Chuy García— are “leading an effort among progressive lawmakers to make it harder for crypto firms to hire former government officials to guide their lobbying efforts.”
The 5 lawmakers sent a letter to all the major federal financial regulators warning that “an influx of former public officials into the crypto sector risked ‘corrupting the policymaking process and undermining the public’s trust in our financial regulators.’”
Americans should be confident that regulators are working on behalf of the public, rather than auditioning for a high-paid lobbying job upon leaving government service. The rapidly spinning revolving door out of government and into the crypto sector, however, undermines both imperatives… [O]ver 200 government officials [had] moved between public service and crypto firms.
Pedersen continued that “The report counted “87 moves between Congress” and the digital asset industry including several ex-lawmakers. Former Senate Finance Committee Chair Max Baucus (D-MT), former Rep. Mike Conaway (R-TX), and former Sen. Bill Bradley (D-NJ) are some of those who have done so… Former Sen. Cory Gardner (R-CO), now leads strategy for the Crypto Council for Innovation.”
One especially slimy cryptocurrency billionaire, Sam Bankman-Fried, started a SuperPAC, Protect Our Future, pretending to be concerned with pandemics— a complete lie— that spent $27,834,018 this cycle, $24,246,001 of it on independent expenditures to help crypto-puppets get elected to the House.
the 'how much damage...' is a trick question. Since NOBODY will stop ANY of the billionaires from doing whatever they want, the answer is infinity.
They will *do* damage until they stop themselves. either they quit because they got all they wanted, or they ran out of money. and they will NEVER get all they want. When they get what they want today, tomorrow they will want more.
if you want it stopped, you'll have to euthanize your democrap party and elect a real left, progressive movement in its place.
since that is obvious after over 5 decades, by continuing to try to elect democraps, you prove that you don't give a flying fuck about this.