Despite the sunny economic forecast coming from the Trump administration, millions of Americans are struggling to find and keep jobs, getting crushed under the rising cost of living, and losing health insurance when they need it the most.
asserted
they → come → it
Meanwhile, via corporate consolidation and political corruption, the billionaire class is getting richer faster than ever before: a 40% increase in wealth in just the last two years.
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class → get → years
Today, the combined wealth of nearly 3,000 global billionaires equals one-fifth of the entire world’s yearly output.
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wealth → combine → output
Nearly 1,000 billionaires live and do business in the United States.
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billionaires → live → States
The tools of their domination are tax loopholes, corporate mergers and, in the tech world where many of these billionaires exist, IPOs.
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many → exist → billionaires
When a company goes public, its founders and investors win the capitalist lottery.
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founders → go → lottery
And instead of paying their fair share of taxes and redistributing resources back into society, most turn around and fund even more corporate consolidation and political corruption to extend their dominion.
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most → pay → dominion
Elon Musk became an instant trillionaire when SpaceX went public earlier this year, on the backs of workers’ pensions – and is bankrolling the Republican midterm campaigns with a small percentage of his egregious gains.
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SpaceX → become → gains
Oracle’s Larry Ellison – currently seventh on the Forbes billionaires list – backed the Paramount-Warner Brothers merger that is destroying the film industry and the livelihoods of the Americans who labor in it.
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who → back → it
Google’s Sergey Brin spent $100m opposing California’s Prop 40, a one-time wealth tax that would put the funds toward healthcare and other public services.
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that → spend → healthcare
To pay for essential services, we must tax billionaires, and pass legislation to do so starting in California and New York, but that is clearly not enough.
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that → pay → California
We cannot allow more billionaires – or trillionaires – to be made in this country, further expanding the inequality chasm that’s turning a dignified life into a luxury in this country.
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that → allow → country
We must also block the impending tech IPOs and preserve what’s left of our economy and our society.
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what → block → economy
The Trump administration and tech investors have positioned IPOs as market success stories: when a company goes public, US investors could gain from their valuations.
uncertain
investors → position → valuations
But regular Americans also shoulder a company’s risks – and risk their own futures when that stock ends up in their retirement accounts without consent.
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stock → shoulder → consent
Problems with a private company or its products become problems for everyone invested in that company once it goes public, whether they’ve made the choice or not.
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they → become → choice
And when the speculative investment bubble pops – such as with the 2008 crisis – regular people end up holding the bag.
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people → pop → bag
It’s no secret that the AI companies Anthropic and OpenAI are intending to go public in the near future.
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companies → ’ → future
Both of these players also had major security flaws exposed recently, and openly acknowledge mind-bogglingly huge amounts of debt.
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flaws → have → debt
If these companies are allowed to go public, their cofounders and investors – some of whom are already billionaires – will rise to whole new strata of private wealth.
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some → allow → wealth
Americans, meanwhile, will be financially crushed if the technologies fail or if these companies prove unable to make good on their extravagant financial promises.
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companies → crush → promises
Already, the 10 most valuable public companies are in tech, which means the country’s economy depends on the stability of a single industry, one with an undeniable history of bubbles, crashes and, in extreme cases like Theranos, outright fraud.
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economy → mean → Theranos
June’s highly contentious SpaceX IPO already carries great risk for regular investors.
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IPO → carry → investors
If more speculative tech companies with staggering risk profiles are allowed to follow suit, the results will become too much for the market to bear.
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market → allow → suit
If and when the AI bubble bursts, it will take all of us with it, investors or not.
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it → burst → it
The one exception will be the billionaires, who will have sufficient resources to walk away from the wreckage relatively unscathed.
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who → have → wreckage
We cannot let the billionaire class take these kinds of risks with our future.
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class → let → future
To stop these reckless IPOs we must stand together, take collective action, and push for real change.
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we → stop → change
We must find legal and legislative avenues to stop the new tech IPOs from minting new billionaires and transferring the AI industry’s enormous risks onto us.
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We → find → us
The first step is passing wealth taxes on billionaires to keep them in check.
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step → pass → check
Today, let’s send a message to the billionaires that Americans will not lie down and let them bulldoze working people and the environment on their way to the bank.
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them → let → bank
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Naomi Klein is a Guardian US columnist and contributing writer.
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Klein → contribute → ?
Her latest book is End Times Fascism: And the Fight for the Living World, co-written with Astra Taylor
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Ilana Glazer is a comedian and video-podcaster who co-created the comedy series Broad City, wrote and starred in the movie Babes, made her Broadway debut last year in Goodnight, and Good Luck and, now, hosts the comedy and socio-political video-podcast, It’s Open With Ilana Glazer
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It → live → Glazer
The Aporia
