BILLIONAIRES

Elon Musk could spend $1 million every day, and it would still take over 600 years for him to exhaust his wealth. What would you do if you had that kind of money? It would be literal pennies for him to, for instance, fund housing for houseless people. Cover the costs of running every single farmed animal sanctuary in the U.S. Buy a yacht for the Gaza Freedom Flotilla (a girl can dream). Hell, buy an entire fleet! There are a great number of societal problems billionaires could alleviate with their wealth and still live quite comfortably.

“In the United States, the top 0.1 percent now control about the same amount of wealth as the bottom 90 percent of the entire population. Globally, the richest eight individuals possess as much wealth as half the entire planet.” (article)

The ultra-wealthy class exists - with an incomprehensible amount of money - in the same world as people with little to no money, without healthcare, without shelter, and public service organizations begging for funding. Even if you don’t believe billionaires are under any moral obligation to share their fortune, what is the point of hoarding so much wealth, particularly at the expense of others, if you literally can’t even spend it all?

First, let’s clear this up: there is no such thing as a self-made billionaire. The ultra-wealthy didn’t just “work hard” to achieve their wealth, just like those in poverty can’t just “work harder” to become financially secure. Having millions and billions of dollars comes with exploitation in all kinds of forms - exploitation of human labor, nonhuman animals, and our natural world.

But what about billionaires who give charitably - surely that makes it okay? Therein lies another problem. Money is power. Let’s look at the mainstream animal rights movement. The animal rights movement is dominated by several large nonprofit advocacy organizations, and they are quite literally controlled by their wealthy donors. Most well-funded nonprofit organizations, contrary to popular belief, are not solely reliant on grassroots donations; they rely on grants from foundations and ultra-wealthy donors. These large donations have strings attached.

If a billionaire’s primary interest is protecting and amassing their wealth, why might they want to donate to nonprofit organizations? (Hint: it makes them richer.)

We used to be funded by one such billionaire who is bankrolling the animal rights/vegan movement. Then we became more vocal about our total liberation stance. We made connections between nonhuman animal and human oppression. We spoke up about Gaza. We lost our funding. The wealthy donors funding this “movement” care about one thing: getting people to go vegan so they can fuel plant-based capitalism. Because true animal liberation - which is directly tied to human liberation - isn’t gonna put money in their pockets.

If a billionaire is telling you how to do your advocacy, you have a boss. Not a revolution. That’s why we launched Vegans Against Fascism.

More information about the ethical problems of being absurdly rich:

And just for fun… spend Elon’s money!