Hard Truths about Broligarchs But Will Anyone Care?
June 23, 2025
An opinion essay written by a dinobaby who did not rely on smart software .
I read an interesting essay in Rolling Stone, once a rock and roll oriented publication. The write up is titled “What You’ve Suspected Is True: Billionaires Are Not Like Us.” This is a hit piece shooting words at rich people. At 80 years old, I am far from rich. My hope is that I expire soon at my keyboard and spare people like you the pain of reading one of my blog posts.
Several observations in the essay caught my attention.
Here’s the first passage I circled:
What Piff and his team found at that intersection is profound — and profoundly satisfying — in that it offers hard data to back up what intuition and millennia of wisdom (from Aristotle to Edith Wharton) would have us believe: Wealth tends to make people act like a**holes, and the more wealth they have, the more of a jerk they tend to be.
I am okay with the Aristotle reference; Edith Wharton? Not so much. Anyone who writes on linen paper in bed each morning is suspect in my book. But the statement, “Wealth tends to make people act like a**holes…” is in line with my experience.
Another passage warrants an exclamation point:
Wealthy people tend to have more space, literally and figuratively….For them, it does not take a village; it takes a staff.
And how about this statement?
Clay Cockrell, a psychotherapist who caters to ultra-high-net-worth individuals, {says]: “As your wealth increases, your empathy decreases. Your ability to relate to other people who are not like you decreases.… It can be very toxic.”
Also, I loved this assertion from a Xoogler:
In October, Eric Schmidt, the former CEO of Google, said the solution to the climate crisis was to use more energy: Since we aren’t going to meet our climate goals anyway, we should pump energy into AI that might one day evolve to solve the problem for us.
Several observations:
- In my opinion, those with money will not be interested in criticism
- Making people with money and power look stupid can have a negative impact on future employment opportunities
- Read the Wall Street Journal story “News Sites Are Getting Crushed by Google’s New AI Tools.
Net net: The apparent pace of change in the “news” and “opinion” business is chugging along like an old-fashioned steam engine owned by a 19th century robber baron. Get on board or get left behind.
Stephen E Arnold, June 23, 2025
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