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I call then Garchs - types who have unconscionable wealth, wiling to subvert democracy to accumulate more. The word oligarch is used by academics, but that doesn't sound sinister enough to me for those whose only purpose is to accumulate immense wealth and power at the expense of the other 99.9%
I used the word "Garch" the other day in an exchange on my high school class WhatsApp group. An old friend pulled me up asking whether that was a baddie from Dr Who?
At same point the word had crept into my lexicon. It sounded more sinister than the word oligarch which is a fussy and academic word for privileged types who have far too much political influence bolstered by immense wealth.
Much of what ails western democracies can be laid at the feet of garchs. Too much wealth concentrated in the hands of a few billionaires results in corrupted democracies. That’s not to say that all billionaire types are neer-do-wells, but there are certain garchy types who use their wealth, political connectivity or media control to lock in the financial advantages they have accrued over the years. You know the types, petrograrchs like Charles Koch or Vladimir Putin, technogarchs like Elon Musk or Peter Thiel and mediagarchs like Rupert Murdoch or Mark Zuckerberg
In a democracy like America, 10 figure+ types funnel money to obedient politicians who provide cuts to taxes and regulations. That’s not to say that garchy types are doing something illegal here, they’ve sponsored changes to the law and brought cases to the Supreme Court which enhanced their ability to engage in legalized bribery. Political Action Committees or Citizens United anybody? Average citizen eyes glaze over when you starting talking about this stuff, but that of course is by design.
Most American voters may not like, know, or understand exactly how the sausage is made in Washington DC. They do however understand that politics and the law is rigged against them. Ironically Donald Trump, in a rare moment of truthfulness told voters exactly that, and then went on to rig the system further for himself and and his garchy friends to the tune of a 2 trillion dollar tax cut. Now that’s a big number that most billionaires dream about. Most Americans don’t even know how to write it down - if you’re interested, it’s a 1 with 12 zeros
Why do garchs do what they do? Don’t they have enough? I mean if Joe-average-American with a life expectancy of 79 received a billion dollars at birth, he’d need to spend 35,000 daily to burn through it all. Yet for those that achieve their first billion, it’s not enough which begs the question why?
Truth is, I can’t answer definitively why garchs feel that they need more, I imagine the reasons are not unitary. Some, no doubt, are motivated by the opportunity to chest thump as they climb the Forbes list. Many suffer from imposter syndrome and need their success to be validated by bankrolling their standing in other domains such as the media or politics. Fear drives some, who believe they’ll lose it all should they not continue to grow faster than their competitors. Paranoia over government intervention in the form of increased taxes or regulatory changes is an omnipresent theme and a regular lament in business news.
I could continue about the feverish fears that crackle through garchy brains, but that is not my concern or purpose. In the sad life of the asset-burdened billionaires and their efforts to improve standing among their bejeweled class, politics and media gets co-opted. Social mobility is choked off as investment in the public sector is undermined in the form of tax reductions. Media discourse is choked off with culture wars distractions that shift focus away from meaningful engagement
Most Americans know our politics are corrupted and our media is troubled. There is a whiff of despair in the air as many realize that the possibility of the American dream recedes. Many are confused by news and social media that seems more devoted to stoking emotions than revealing solutions. The garchs simply want obedient consumers for their products, unwanted are citizens that ask unsolicited awkward questions or even worse agitate for change. Truth is, garchs only like change that increases their wealth, empathy is not their strong suit, and concern for their fellow man is virtually nonexistent.
Garchs ain’t good. While many normals fret, that there is no solution which can curb the suffocating influence of obscene wealth, that is not the case, we have democracy and our vote. We shouldn’t be surprised by the ever growing democracy-skeptical stories popping up in our media feeds, it is the logical extension to what I already described
What to do, get rid of the garchs. No need for violence, taxes are what are used in a healthy democracy to reduce the malign influence of unconscionable wealth.
