Published
Jan 1, 2025Page count
224 pagesISBN
978-1529239102Dimensions
216 x 140 mmImprint
Bristol University PressPublished
Jan 1, 2025Page count
224 pagesISBN
978-1529239126Dimensions
216 x 140 mmImprint
Bristol University Press
Stinking Rich
From Occupy Wall Street to ‘tax-the-rich’ activism, there has been growing resistance to the unearned wealth and power commanded by the billionaire class – an ultra-elite social class who have sequestered the world’s wealth while others languish in poverty and hunger.
How do they get away with it?
Coupled with their immense financial resources, a set of inter-connected myths portray billionaires as a ‘force for good’:
• Heroic billionaires
• Generous billionaires
• Meritorious billionaires
• Vigilante billionaires
These archetypes are allowing billionaire wealth and power to set us back to old-style feudalism and plutocracy.
Offering a trenchant critique of the new breed of billionaires, this incisive book testifies to the growing political will worldwide to take concrete actions to support economic justice and democratic equality.
Carl Rhodes is Professor of Organization Studies and Dean of the Business School, University of Technology Sydney. He studies the ethical and democratic dimensions of business, the economy and work. He is author of the bestselling Woke Capitalism (Bristol University Press, 2021) and a frequent commentator for the press in publications such as The Guardian, The Times, Fast Company, Business Insider and The Conversation.
1. Who Wants to Be a Billionaire?
2. The New Billionaires
3. The Myth of the Heroic Billionaire
4. The Myth of the Generous Billionaire
5. The Myth of the Meritorious Billionaire
6. The Myth if the Vigilante Billionaire
7. What Is To Be Done?
