As I watched my family members trade arguments on the character of Elon Musk, whether robber baron or clever businessman, it occurred to me that my previous worldview of billionaire outlooks had been incorrect.
I had formerly mentally assigned these respective viewpoints along political leanings. I thought the robber baron viewpoint, that of billionaires as cruel, manipulative omens of late stage capitalism, as the viewpoint of a leftist, and the more compassionate, awe-filled business-oriented viewpoint as an idea right-wing in origin. And to be sure, I think these views are more typically correlated with these respective political leanings.
But this doesn’t explain pre-MAGA Musk’s view from leftists as the savior of the world, our “real life Tony Stark.” He was a billionaire just like now with an eye-watering fortune, but many leftists found themselves indebted to Musk’s investment in electric cars. Here is a good point to remember that the anti-monopoly left does not represent the majority of leftists.
What then is the surface against which billionaire views cascade apart? I believe it’s generational.
Baby boomers grew up in an era of seeming unlimited opportunity. It was in their era that it was decided to build vast, sprawling, car-dependent suburban cities, the physical manifestation of the growth culture that was worshipped then. Nevermind that it would take decades to discover the unsustainability of these communities – in the formative years of boomers growing up, the world was a limitless place.
Large companies grew from humble beginnings: Apple, Walmart, Microsoft. There was money ready to be created in as-yet nonexistent industries. Someone could become a millionaire overnight, and a billionaire within a few years. It was probably the most affirming time to be a believer in the American Dream. And life expectancies, wages, and living conditions steadily rose as if to prove that these industry titans were solely responsible for a productive American society.
But younger generations have grown up in the shadows of a world once thought capable of infinite expansion, we have become much more jaded. We live in a world of resource scarity, unaffordable housing, and stagnant wages.
What boomers see as a society that has forgotten to innovate and create, millennials and Gen Z see as the choked breathing of a society grasped by late stage capitalism. The fortunes of billionaires did not accumulate ex nihilo: that money had to come from somewhere, and the capitalist system ensured that those with money gained more money, transferring the wealth of the middle class upward. In a reality where energy cannot be created or destroyed, did boomers really think that money could be earned by the baron without being taken from the beggar?
It should not come as a surprise if a zoomer fails to find the joy and wonder of the American Dream in the world’s elites consolidation of lifetimes of fortunes, great oceans of money that no man could imagine spending, if that zoomer has little chance of ever responsibly affording a home or healthcare or transportation or children or higher education. But at least our TVs are cheaper now thanks to the billionaires.
Marc Reisner wrote in Cadillac Desert that “In the West, water flows uphill to money”. My generation is inclined to say similarly that, “In capitalism, money flows uphill to money.” Or perhaps it could be said that in a wildfire, the fire travels fastest uphill.