Billionaire: ‘I see pitchforks’

The July edition of US Politico Magazine contains a plea from multi-billionaire venture capitalist Nick Hanauer.

“Memo: from Nick Hanauer To: my fellow zillionaires” is an argument for the US minimum wage to be increased. Hanauer doesn’t make an appeal to justice. Nor is mass squalor condemned as morally affronting.

On the contrary, he tugs on the heart strings of capitalist self-interest: if the rich don’t throw the poor a bone, revolution is inevitable. That will be really bad for the rich:

“[L]ike you I am one of those .01%ers, a proud and unapologetic capitalist … What sets me apart, I think, is a tolerance for risk and an intuition about what will happen in the future. Seeing where things are headed is the essence of entrepreneurship. And what do I see in our future now? I see pitchforks …

“[M]any of our fellow citizens are starting to believe that capitalism itself is the problem. I disagree, and I’m sure you do too. Capitalism, when well managed, is the greatest social technology ever invented … [However], the oldest and most important conflict in human societies is the battle over the concentration of wealth and power.

“The folks like us at the top have always told those at the bottom that our respective positions are righteous and good for all. Historically, we called that divine right. Today we have trickle-down economics. What nonsense this is.

“And so I have a message for my fellow filthy rich, for all of us who live in our gated bubble worlds: Wake up, people. It won’t last. If we don’t do something to fix the glaring inequities in this economy, the pitchforks are going to come for us ... It’s not if, it’s when.”

We can only hope that Hanauer is as gifted at making predictions as he is at making money.