It’s weird how in the Western world we rarely call them oligarchs. That seems to be reserved for the wealth-hoarders in former-Soviet countries.
As a British person, I had a few awkward conversations with other British people when I’ve asked them to explain the difference between a royal or a higher level aristocrat and an oligarch.
It seems to be something to do with the length of time society had to endure their bastardry. Well, it’s either that or that they’re not from the Oligar region of Russia. Its one of the two.
I guess the technical difference would be that one had ancestors who took their power by force and managed to cement it into hereditary rule, while the other acquired it as a “captain of industry” and then largely did the same thing through lobbying or other forms of cronyism.
Mostly the same end result, but for some reason we put one on our coins and hold celebrations in their honor.
I do prefer your champagne analogy though.
Would you still feel that way, about the very first part, if I was to remind you that some of the Russian oligarchs were crime bosses who took power and wealth by force?
Admittedly, it doesn’t have the hereditary rule part but that, for me, would simple fall under “the difference is the passage of time.” I see it much like the difference between a cult and a religion.
Very fair point. And just to clarify, I loathe them all about equally regardless of how they obtained their wealth/power or what country they’re from.
Here in Ukraine, we don’t really have those illusions about them, yeah. Some of it might be remainders of Soviet collectivism, but even back then there were people who hoarded money and power, just under different pretenses
So it really is the same everywhere.
I personally like to reserve “parasite” for the investors, the ones who will literally send you to court if you try to be human to your employees.
It’s the same picture
No you are Spiderman dot jpg
True and the worse the people are the higher up they go, great for the inverters tho, bad for society as a whole (https://www.yewtu.be/watch?v=STYgeA9VSc) (the video goes over how the biggest investment companies stagger society as a whole, and how the normal person buying shares in a company DONT use their voting power to change the company for the better.)
Parasite species at least actually require resources from their host to survive. I think it might be too generous of a label
Normalise saying “fossil methane” instead of “natural gas”
@naturalgasbad@lemmy.ca would have to change nickname
I’ve been calling all fossil fuels ‘artisanal energy’. It will eventually become as practical as other handmade, small batch products.
Hoarders don’t take things from others (not explicitly). So this term is too kind, and inaccurate.
They are stealing from us, folks. They’re fucking criminals.
I like “Robber Barrons”. I just wish it didn’t sound so cool.
Following the people from another comment thread - oligarchs. It might sound post-Soviet and old-fashioned to some, but it is a rather apt description - the power of few, if you translate literally
Another facet (at least specifically in America) is to de-stigmatize discussing personal income among the working class. We’ve been melt-brained hard to think it’s as private and taboo as discussing one’s most deep and darkest sexual kinks when really it’s just a tool of the owners to keep workers indentured in the wage-slave economy.
I’m doing my part! I’ve been bringing it up at lunch.
‘Money pervert’ also works
I like this but I can see them leaning into it and taking it as a badge of honor.
Wealth predator. It has more of that negative connotation it deserves
Or just oligarch or power addict. In the eyes of most people, wealth is about luxury, material goods and fancy toys. Of course that’s part of it, but at a certain point, wealth is no longer about luxury and toys, it’s about power and having control over resources everyone else depends on.
I’ve become personally partial to “landleech”.
or oligarch, wait nvm how could i forget only the other has those, silly me how could i forget.
“Wage slave master”?
It is long past time we got over our child-like worship of billionaires.
Indeed, there’s nothing inherently exceptional in
billionaireswealth hoarders, according to many studies of this phenomenon. They are literally just lucky enough that they managed to get their hands on such a ludicrous amount of money, they really aren’t anything special.
“dragon”
richoids
I think it isn’t going to be that effective a phrase. People don’t understand why having lots of money (hoarding wealth) is a bad thing, necessarily, and it sort of implies that, if they were to just spend it it’d make the initial hoarding fine.
Gotta also focus on the fact that they essentially stole that money from workers through labor exploitation. The bare fact that they got the money to begin with is the problem, not just them holding onto it. If they were to spend it all on horrible capitalist enterprises rather than hoarding it, that’d be even worse. Even if they spent it all on “philanthropic” efforts, that’s still worse than the workers having their fair share and the government being able to actually have that money to spend on social programs through taxes.
I’m old school, I stick to calling them boss, capitalist, and bourgeoisie
