What Happens to Billionaires?  

By Shlomo Maital

      What in the world happens to billionaires, after they begin as entrepreneurs out to change the world for the better,  and end up ruining the world, for the worse?

       Mark Zuckerberg started at Harvard, with an idea to produce an online class yearbook, in place of the old-fashioned print book.  It was a success – other universities wanted to copy it..and the result was Facebook (Meta), market cap $1.26 trillion! Zuckerberg is worth $177 billion.  

         According to a lawsuit filed by New York State, and other state governments:  “Kids and teenagers are suffering from record levels of poor mental health, and social media companies like Meta are to blame.  Meta has profited from children’s pain by intentionally designing its platforms with manipulative features that make children addicted to their platforms while lowering their self-esteem.”

         The worst part is, Facebook insider whistleblowers say Facebook has research that shows they know they are deeply harming kids.  But – hey, bottom line, fellas.  Capitalism.  We have shareholders, you know. 

           Zuckerberg?

           Elon Musk, against the odds, built a massive global electric car company, now worth $556 billion.  His personal wealth:  $194 billion.  Musk has pioneered SpaceX, and brain implants for paraplegics.  News reports now claim:   Long considered non-identifiable ideologically, Musk’s politics are now hardline right wing as he uses his platform (now called X) to stoke the themes cherished by Fox News, conservative talk radio and far right movements across the West.

          Jeff Yass, a pauper, worth only $27.5 billion, is a cofounder of Susquehanna, a huge global Wall St. trading firm.   He first became a pro gambler, then began trading on the Philadelphia Stock Exchange in 1981 backed by billionaire Israel Englander. In 1987, he cofounded Susquehanna with a handful of partners; it’s now a giant in options trading and making markets, with 2,000 employees worldwide.

           Yass funded an Israeli right-wing think tank, Kohelet, which powered  and funded the far-right Netanyahu government’s anti-democratic initiative, causing 10 months of wild street protests, culminating in the October 7 massacre by Hamas, perhaps tempted by fractious Israeli politics.  Yass was an early investor in TikTok, a social medium that originated in China, that has caused Israel massive harm and damaged the lives of young people in the US and elsewhere. (Trump originally supported Biden Administration efforts to make Bytedance divest TikTok – then did a sharp U-turn when Yass, a big Trump supporter and donor, whispered in his ear).   

          The list is endless.  Massive wealth seems to push good people to the right and far right, where they use their billions to do huge damage. 

          We need an inheritance tax, so that the billionaires do not bequeath their malice and money to the young generation.  Laurene Powell Jobs,  Steve Jobs’ widow, told NPR she intends to give away her wealth, rather than bequeath it, and already has donated billions. 

           Power corrupts, the saying goes.  Money corrupts even more.  Warren Buffett organized a large group of billionaires who committed to giving away their wealth.  Buffett, the Omaha wizard, never lost his folksy demeanor or common-people values.  But many other billionaires have lost their way. 

             Shame.