Are Billionaires Evil?

Commonly, you will see people pointing to people such as Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk as examples of evil billionaires. Of the people that use their wealth for evil, instead of good. Decadent, corrupt, out of touch. But is this true? Are they really evil?

People on the right, rushing to the defense of billionaires, point to them as job-creators. And this is correct. Billionaires only advance to their station by skimming off of the top of workers' labor. But then, how does this occur? A billionaire does not get this way with just a few employees, but with thousands or hundreds of thousands of employees. In other words, a billionaire not only develops his wealth through exploitation, but also through the development of the productive forces, to expand his network of exploitation.

Not only this, but people point to figures like JK Rowling and Taylor Swift, billionaires who got their position through their art, as examples of 'ethical' billionaires. Of course, this diregards the print shops, book store clerks, sound engineers, and roadies that help them build their wealth, who are vital and necessary. Often people will point to Bill Gates as an example of a good billionaire, using his wealth for charity and research. Obviously, this is nonsense. If I rob a man at gunpoint for one hundred dollars, and give fifty to a homeless man, I am not suddenly no longer a robber. There is no ethical billionaire. But the existence of billionaires is not the issue. It is the system that creates them. People who think we can 'fix' capitalism by simply taxing billionaires out of existence are focusing on the wrong issue.

Capitalism has had its role in developing the productive forces, liberating people from serfdom, progressing history. But it is simply an outdated system, ready to be discarded. We should not eliminate billionaires through high taxation, but by changing the underlying mode of production that allows the existence of billionaires.

Billionaires, the ultra-wealthy, are a necessary part of the capitalist stage of development, of creating the forces of production and the material basis for communism. Billionaires are a good thing in that regard. The existence of the bourgeoisie, the ruling class, the billionaires, is itself not a bad thing. Billionaires are not evil. They are simply outdated at this time, no longer necessary. They can be brought down and rehabilitated, or forcefully deposed if they resist the progress of history. But they are by no means evil. They are simply playing their role in the system they operate within.