Many of these billionaires are hoping or trying to dismantle democracy and create some sort of techno feudalism where corporations rule. What’s disturbing is that many of these men have read sci fi where such techno feudalism is the norm and they seemed to have missed that such societies were never portrayed as being ideal or even good, they are always dystopic.
In Douglas Rushkoff’s “Survival of the Richest”, originally published on Medium on July 5, 2018, with the subtitle “The wealthy are plotting to leave us behind.”, Rushkoff describes accepting an unusually well-paid invitation to speak about “the future of technology” at a luxurious private resort. He expected roughly 100 investment bankers, but instead found himself sitting at a table with five extremely wealthy men from the hedge-fund world. Their questions shifted from cryptocurrency to whether New Zealand or Alaska would be safer during a collapse—and then to their bunkers.
A brokerage-house CEO who had nearly finished building an underground bunker asked, “How do I maintain authority over my security force after the event?”
By “the event,” they meant a catastrophe such as environmental collapse, social unrest, nuclear disaster, or an unstoppable virus. They worried that money would become worthless and their armed guards might take over. Rushkoff recounts them discussing combination locks on food supplies, disciplinary collars for guards, and robot security. His response was to treat their security personnel well and build relationships rather than rely on coercion.
They didn’t like that answer.
https://archive.rushkoff.com/articles/1094-survival-of-the-richest.html https://www.theguardian.com/news/2022/sep/04/super-rich-prepper-bunkers-apocalypse-survival-richest-rushkoff
I can’t see the US ever introducing universal basic income
Recent polling shows 66% of Americans support Medicare for all. The people will demand UBI once it’s needed, the only question is whether the Epstein class will comply peacefully or not.
Sure we destroyed the planet, but for a while there we provided great shareholder value.
Oracle will probably go bankrupt and then get bailed out by Trump’s government.
They know their promises cannot be kept. They are building a surveillance state for the government. When the bubble bursts, the government will swoop in and bail them out because they are too big to fail and hand over most of these AI resources to the US government.
I’m terrified by the parallels between today and the rise of fascism in the early 20th century.