Billionaires Are Obviously Bad, But Is It Ethical To Be a Millionaire?
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Billionaires Are Obviously Bad, But Is It Ethical To Be A Millionaire?
by Megan Griffith
I think we can all agree that being a billionaire is inherently unethical, that there is no ethical way to generate (and hoarde) a billion dollars worth of wealth for one singular human being.
My question is...what about millionaires? Is it ethical to be a millionaire?
Let's dive into it.
Billionaires Are ALWAYS Unethical
Look, I am all for attaining wealth so that we can use it for good. I'm not a money-hating leftist, I'm more of a Mon Mothma type (she's one of the only women besides Leia from the original Star Wars trilogy, and she pretty much single-handedly funded the Rebellion).
But there's "make a difference" wealth, and then there's "Smaug's hoard" wealth.
Billionaires are alwasy Smaug.
Why?
For two reasons:
1) They exploit others in order to obtain their wealth in the first place. This isn't the case for every billionaire, but it is the case for many (ex: Jeff Bezos, who is so wealthy he couldn't spend all his money if he tried, while many Amazon employees are living on benefits. It's fucked up.)
2) They refuse to use their obscene wealth for anyone other than themselves. Even if a billionaire doesn't meet the first criteria, they certainly meet this one.
You might think, "But Megan, what if they just had an amazing idea or a great entertainment career or something? Surely SOME billionaires are okay?"
No.
Why? Because Dolly Parton, that's why.
Dolly Parton could be a billionaire a thousand times over, and I'd argue she's done nothing but bring joy to our lives with her music.
But she's not a billionaire.
Because she knew no person needs that much money, and decided to start the Imagination Library, which provides books to kids every month from birth to age 5 all across the US.
She decided to fund the COVID-19 vaccine.
She decided to invest in Black communities.
See, it's simply not possible to both accumulate and KEEP that much money ethically.
Millionaires Are NOT Billionaires
We've all heard it before but it bears repeating:
A million seconds is a little over 11 days.
A billion seconds is 31 years.
AKA, more than 11,000 days.
I know "billion" and "million" sound similar, but that's honestly such a shame because they couldn't be further apart.
In a more practical sense, the average billionaire owns 4 different properties (boooo landlords, or worse, lavish houses sitting empty most of the year).
The average millionaire owns just one property.
(Oh, and the average American can't afford a house at all. So yeah, there's that.)
I'm not saying that just because millionaires aren't the same as billionaires that they're automatically ethical, but I think it's important to start by simply acknowledging that there IS a significant difference between the two.
Personally, I believe that there are countless unethical ways to become a millionaire.
But I also believe there are countless ETHICAL ways to become a millionaire.
You Being Poorer Doesn't Make Your Community Richer
You are part of your community. You count too.
I don't mean this in a hyperindividualistic, you're the ONLY one that matters kind of way.
I mean it in a community care kind of way.
I'm a better community member when I have wealth to share.
The summer that Roe v. Wade got overturned in the US, the business was doing really well, so I donated half my income that month to my local abortion fund.
For the past 17 months, I've been regularly sending money to my friend Abood in Gaza as he and his family try to survive a seemingly neverending genocide.
Want to support Abood too?
Donate to his PayPal to help.
I can't do any of these things if I'm struggling financially.
Wealth is powerful, and not just because of capitalism.
Money is a value exchange.
Capitalism doesn't suck becuase money sucks, capitalism sucks because it sees that value exchange as an opportunity to exploit and extract as much as possible while giving as LITTLE as possible back in return.
Hoarding more money than you could spend in a hundred lifetimes is always unethical.
Having enough money that you can live comfortably for one lifetime is not.
Please remember that you deserve to be paid for your effort.
We can all agree that labor exploitation is always wrong, yeah?
Okay, then riddle me this: why is it wrong to exploit someone else's labor, but it's okay for others to exploit your labor? Why are you expected to work for free? How does that set any kind of good example for a fair and equitable society?
Trying to become a millionaire, to ensure your own financial security and to uplift your community (which you are apart of!!!) is okay.
It's allowed.
You're allowed to want it, to go after it, and to get it.
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