Dickson C. Igwe. Photo: VINO/File

OK. Will billionaires support the change needed to pull the world from the edge of the social and environmental abyss, in terms of bridging the wealth gap? Or is that asking turkeys to vote for Christmas?

Will billionaires and super-wealthy people support the type of systemic change that reduces their own power?

Then, the simple fact is that today, across all geographies, billionaires rule.

Billionaires are not simply the owners of multi-billion, and trillion-dollar corporations in the USA, Western Europe, and across the world; billionaires are national leaders and men who rule whole swathes of the world and its resources, from domains, jurisdictions, and kingdoms in Eurasia, Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America.

The reality is the billionaire is the super investor, entrepreneur, and power broker. The billionaire controls the world economy in terms of reach, substance, and scope. And most governments are wary of taking on these powerful individuals.

But how do governments and societies get the billionaires on board, especially with the need to bridge the wealth gap, and fund the clean energy, sustainable economics, and social infrastructure, the world so desperately requires as this COVID 19 pandemic continues its gruelling journey of death and destruction? That is a big question.

Austerity and Trickledown have massively benefitted the 1%. However, unfettered free trade and deregulation have arguably pulled the world to the social and environmental brink, by concentrating wealth and power in a handful of families who today rule the global economy. Pure capitalism places the pursuit of profit above social and environmental concerns.

Now, governments remain powerful organizations, and modern governments possess something billionaires may not be able to control: the masses, and the institutions that drive societies, regions, and social change.

It takes government to act when nonprofits, charitable organizations, and wealthy men and women, are unable to act in concert in the face of calamity. The pandemic is an example of a crisis only governments, acting together, can fight.

Nonprofits backed by billionaires cannot single-handedly stop the devastation of a pandemic. The fact is it will take both government and society, and the billionaire class, to solve today’s social and environmental problems.

It is in the interest of billionaires and super investors, and their families, to live in a socially equitable world where people exist in safety and harmony in a pristine habitat.

The problem is billionaires are naturally frugal and acquisitive. It is a tall order indeed to expect these people who exist by killer instinct to suddenly decide to give up a significant percentage of their wealth in taxes.

The wealth of the Billionaire increased by over a trillion dollars in the middle of the present pandemic and will increase further by the end of the pandemic.

At the lower end of the wealth pyramid, the poor and low paid have lost livelihoods, homes, and the incomes that allow struggling folk to lead a sustainable existence.

Massive inequality is simply unsustainable long term.

A look back at history reveals that unsustainable inequality is trigger for social upheaval and even violence.

Governments have the duty to ensure that the inequality where one individual is worth $200 billion while another sleeps in the freezing cold of a subway in New York ends.

That will only happen when governments act to get billionaires to accept they have to pay higher taxes to help fund a more equitable, and socially and ecologically friendly world.

The super-wealthy must understand that inequality may be inevitable, but that massive inequality can have dire repercussions for mankind. 

Connect with Dickson Igwe on Facebook and Twitter