Billionaires club: (clockwise from top left) Mark Zuckerberg, Taylor Swift, LeBron James, Oprah Winfrey, Elon Musk, and Jay-Z. Josh Edelson/AFP via Getty Images (Zuckerberg); Image Press Agency/Alamy Live News (Swift); Blaine Ohigashi/NBAE via Getty Images (James); Imagespace/Alamy Stock Photo (Musk); FF/Alamy Stock Photo (Jay-Z); MediaPunch Inc/Alamy Stock Photo (Winfrey)

Are There Too Many Billionaires?

October 28, 2024

Illustration By Carolyn Ridsdale

The world has 2,781 billionaires, according to Forbes—141 more than in 2023, and 26 more than the record high set in 2021. Altogether, these billionaires have a net worth of more than $14 trillion.

As income inequality rises around the world and extreme poverty endures, more and more wealth is being accumulated by a small group of people. Is that a problem?

Some argue that people like Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg or Tesla’s Elon Musk, even Taylor Swift and Jay-Z, grew so rich because they created innovative products that improve our lives. But others question whether billionaires’ extreme wealth is ethical in a world where so many people still have so little.

Does the world have too many billionaires? Two political philosophers face off.

Too many billionaires?

We shouldn’t have any at all.

Billionaire wealth is often the result of unfair economic practices. Since the 1980s, unionization, the real value of the minimum wage, and worker protections have decreased as profits for business owners and investors have increased. That has allowed the superrich, whose fortunes are heavily invested in stocks, to obtain a larger share of the nation’s wealth—wealth we all produced together.

And what happens to those earnings? A White House study found that the richest 400 families in the U.S. pay a lower percentage in taxes than anyone else, eventually passing their wealth on to their children. We need to change our tax laws so that the rich pay their fair share. That money could help build roads, fund climate action, and address poverty.

One reason extreme wealth is harmful to society is that it creates an uneven playing field in our democratic system. Billionaires have the money to set up think tanks to devise policies that benefit them, then hire lobbyists and make huge financial donations to influence lawmakers. Ordinary people can’t do that.

Having billionaires is harmful to society and the environment.

Exorbitant wealth is also bad for Earth. Numerous studies have found that the superrich have an outsize carbon footprint. Take billionaires’ private jets, for example. These emit, per passenger, 10 times the pollution of a commercial plane, says the Institute for Policy Studies.

We’d be better off in a society where no one can become so enormously rich and where the emphasis is on mutual well-being—on making public investments in education and health care. Let’s insure that all children have equal opportunities in life, which is now undeniably not the case. Those who aspire to great wealth would still have reason to work hard, innovate, and produce—even if they don’t make a billion dollars, which is more than anyone can reasonably spend in a lifetime.

—INGRID ROBEYNS
Political Philosopher, Utrecht University

Billionaires are a symptom of prosperity.

A society prospers by protecting people’s economic freedom and property rights. An economy that improves everyone’s well-being is likely to produce billionaires.

Over the past two centuries, the societies that have seen the greatest gains in life expectancy, educational attainment, health, and material security achieved these gains by enforcing economic policies that permitted people to profit from their efforts. As more people can meet their basic needs, there’s also a lot more wealth and income inequality. But this trade-off is worth it, if we focus on the absolute well-being of the worst off. Political leaders worldwide recognize that economic development is the most promising way to help their people, even if it also creates an unequal distribution of wealth and income.

Billionaires are a sign of a thriving and innovative society.

Though some billionaires are unpopular nowadays, it would be a mistake for lawmakers to discourage people from becoming billionaires or to impose taxes that make it impossible to accumulate a billion dollars in wealth. Many billionaires have gotten their wealth by providing or investing in innovative products or services that have improved the lives of millions of people. And they have done this by providing consumers with their first-choice product at a low cost. For example, Jay-Z and Taylor Swift became billionaires in part because their fans can access their music online, while less preferred artists can’t compete by selling music at a lower price. Economists call this the superstar effect. The music industry, like a society’s economic system as a whole, can generate extreme inequality just by letting consumers and producers trade freely.

Finally, billionaires are often philanthropists, benefitting morally important causes that public officials overlook, such as global poverty relief, animal welfare, and environmental justice. As Jay-Z once said, “I can’t help the poor if I’m one of them, so I got rich and gave back. To me, that’s the win-win.”

—JESSICA FLANIGAN
Political Philosopher, University of Richmond

Countries With the Most Billionaires (2024)

1. United States: 813

2. China: 406

3. India: 200

4. Germany: 132

5. Russia: 120

6. Italy: 73

7. Brazil: 69

8. (tie) Canada: 67

8. (tie) Hong Kong*: 67

10. United Kingdom: 55