The super-rich: a glimpse into the super-rich of our time

Christia Friland's new book, "The Rich: The Rise of the world's super-rich and the Decline of others" (Citic Press, November 2013) once again announced the rise of another class. The journalist, known for his record of Russia's transition, made it clear at the outset that the book was "Not a way of life for the rich and famous," and did not want to be a replica of who's sin. But after reading the book, you will find that it is in fact mixed with the lifestyles of the rich, the path to success and an intellectual's concern about the gap between the rich and the poor-the so-called "other people's downfall". I don't think too many people have doubts about this judgment: the era we live in is producing the largest super-rich in history. The reason is that the way the modern world generates wealth is far more diverse than the era of its predecessors: the financial giants represented on Wall Street, the internet and mobile internet upstarts represented by Silicon Valley, the rich who contribute to the fast-growing developing countries, and the huge demand for globalisation that has catalysed all industries. In Christia Friland's parlance, we live in a "twin Gilded Age". On the one hand, emerging market countries are experiencing the industrial revolution experienced by Western society, on the other hand, the Western society, which has experienced the industrial Revolution, is experiencing a new technological revolution no less than the industrial revolution. "If the Industrial revolution is the speed at which the Western economy accelerates from horse to car, today's change is to speed the world economy from ordinary mail to e-mail," she said. Today's super-rich are a lot different than their former super-rich, such as the industrial-era robber barons. First, they are bigger, they are no longer individual giants like Rockefeller or Carnegie, but they form a group. Second, the outstanding professionals who serve the super-rich become super rich, "the world's top rich circle has created a superstar artist and professional class, and the best and luckiest of them can become the top billionaires by their strength." The third difference is the rise of the individual, before the super-rich have to create a huge organization to build their own amazing wealth, and today, Drucker's "knowledge workers" in the fight against capital increasingly share more interests, Wall Street traders and Hollywood stars are examples. The fourth difference is that, thanks to globalisation and technological advances, these super-rich are forming a coterie that transcends nations and nations, and the common discourse between them is far greater than the common discourse between them and the civilian population living in the same city. Statistically, most of these super-rich are admirable wealth heroes. "Most of the income of today's richest Americans (nearly 2/3 per cent) comes from work, compared to about 1/5 a century ago," Christia Friland quoted a group of data. She uses the phrase "respond to change" to describe the secret of the rise of the super elites. It is not a secret that the super-rich who can create great wealth willMust be able to identify the great paradigm shifts that will take place and benefit from it-"the ability to recognise paradigm shifts and to adapt to this transformation is a rare talent that is one of the economic factors that makes a super elite." Gladwell a good description of the phenomenon in his last book, "The Alien". There must be a big enough window of history to create a huge enough fortune. The United States, at the end of 19th century and early 20th century, is a frequently cited example. The huge changes in the industrial sector, including the railway Revolution, the retail revolution and the oil revolution, have made it possible for tycoons, including Rockefeller, Carnegie and Ford, to rank among the richest in history. The people who have captured this paradigm shift in our time, and who have responded to change include: The oligarchs who benefited from the transition from Eastern Europe to Russia, a Christia familiar with the former Russian richest man, Mr Khodorkovsky, the media giant Gusinski, Hong Kong, China, The rising tycoons in countries and regions such as India, they share the enormous wealth created by a country from its beginnings to its economic take-off, and the technological innovators who respond to the internet and the mobile Internet, including venture capital that invests in these technological innovators, because of globalisation, including some non-western investors, For example, Milner of the Russian digital Sky Company and Prince Alwaleed of Saudi Arabia have responded positively and participated in the giants of financial innovation, such as the hedge fund giants including Soros. Another factor that can create great wealth is less enjoyable: by seeking rent from political power to gain wealth. "In an era of wealth surging, we need to always be vigilant about how the elite can get rich, and they may use political power to increase their share of the existing economy rather than inject new value into the economy to expand the size of the whole cake," Christia quoted economist Raghuram as saying. Carlos, the Mexican telecoms giant who overtook Bill Gates to become the world's richest man, is an example. To his wealthy, he bought Telmex, a state-owned enterprise that monopolized Mexican telecoms services. The telecoms empire controls 80% of the fixed-phone market and 70% of the mobile market. Whether Slim was taking a rent-seeking act during the auction-and the decision to auction Telmex's former Mexican president, Carlos Salinas, was Slim's friend, Slim's continued monopoly must have something to do with government policy. Rent-seeking people can be divided into two categories, one is directly through the relationship between power to obtain wealth, which is common in history, and the other is the entrepreneur through innovation and wealth after the success of their companies too large, become monopolies, and will use their influence to rent the government. And, even more desperately, no one can resist the tendency to influence government policies to better serve the interests of their companies. In the political drama "The Card House", we can see that the energy company hires the lobbyist almost is follows the influential politician. Widening the gap between rich and poor and hugeThe possibility of rent-seeking by rich people has made the world less enjoyable. But that's not the real danger. The real danger is that the super-rich that emerge as a new class are likely to turn the open world into a closed and stagnant one. "The biggest danger is the impact of ' closed doors '." As the top rich become richer, they are increasingly able to make the rules that are good for them, and that power is hard to stop, "Christia said. She cited Daron Asemoglo and James Rubinson in the "Why the country failed" research, the government's governance system into inclusive and squeeze type. "The squeeze-type government is dominated by elites who aim to squeeze as much wealth out of the rest of society as possible and make sure that they are in power"; An inclusive government gives everyone a say in the way society is managed and allows everyone access to economic opportunities. An inclusive society often finds itself benefiting from a virtuous circle: the greater the inclusiveness, the greater the prosperity of society, and the greater inclusiveness that the prosperity of society inspires. The tendency of the super elites to be self-contained will undermine the original inclusiveness of the society and turn it into a closed. She believes that what happened on Wall Street before and after the 2008 economic crisis is a good illustration of the problem. In 2007, Mr. Bloomberg commissioned a study by McKinsey to worry that the tightening of U.S. financial regulation could give New York the position to cede financial centres to London, Hong Kong or Dubai. The result of the 2008-year crisis is that regulation is not too draconian, but quite the opposite. After the crisis, Paulson, the finance minister, who came from Goldman Sachs, said the world would be destroyed if the government did not give it a helping hand. As a result, the investment banks began to pay high bonuses to their partners after they got the money from investors. This behavior, which conforms to the logic of Wall Street, has been widely criticized. Christia Ironically, she has no doubts about Mr Paulson's sincerity, because he does think that the interests of Wall Street are in line with the interests of the United States and the world, and that when he says the world will be destroyed, the exact point is the world he knows. Christia has no intention of pretending to be an anti-capitalist. "This book takes the belief that we need capitalism as a starting point because the West really needs capitalism," she said. Capitalism, like democracy, is the best system currently devised by the West. But she also believes that "elites do not deliberately sabotage their economic systems, but even intelligent, visionary, top-ranked billionaires may be misled for their short-term interests and ultimately undermine the foundations of social prosperity". Her fears are not unreasonable. Historically, the economist Joseph Schumpeter and sociologist Bell have also been concerned about the self-destructive tendencies of capitalism. Christia's worries are one of the contradictions of capitalism's ego: The biggest beneficiaries of the capitalist system may undermine it, while government regulation will have to take on the task of saving capitalism. Thus, the book may be summed up as: The rise of the super-rich and the need to regulate them. The author Li Shang isJournalist and writer. He was a former editor of the Economic Observer and Esquire Chinese edition. His published works include "Travel with business stars", "Who knows more about China", etc.