- The richest one percent of people own 40% of global wealth
- The combined wealth of the world's 946 dollar billionaires amounts to three times that of the poorest half of the world's population - 3.3 billion people
If any similarly sized group of a particular nationality, or religious cult tried to grab anything like this amount of financial power they would be swept away instantly by a tsunami of public outrage but for some reason the rich are tolerated and, what's more interesting, widely admired.
Today the various categories of the rich - landed gentry, thieves, despotic dictators, hedge fund managers and mindless celebrities, are happy to rub shoulders with each other at the racecourse, nightclubs or any of the other islands in their exclusive archipelago. There is a growing convergence of their culture and spending habits which range from the wildly profligate to the absurd and to the very extremes of vulgarity.
Far more threatening is their control of the information we receive through their ownership of the media and their manipulation of our political landscape though their venal influence on acquiescent politicians.
For all the claims made about the necessity for this level of inequality in the name of economic progress, it turns out that the key to wealth on this scale is to be born in the right bed, to be in the right place at the right time and to develop a disregard for others in the satisfaction of unmitigated greed.
Written in a unique style that combines humour with a deeper analysis, Filthy Rich is a timely reminder to us all that behind the stories of frivolous lifestyles and the myths of boardroom buccaneering are a tiny group of unelected, unaccountable people whose power we may soon not be able to control.
- ISBN13 9781842779774
- Publish Date 1 July 2008
- Publish Status Cancelled
- Out of Print 18 July 2013
- Publish Country GB
- Imprint Zed Books Ltd
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 288
- Language English