Тег: Billionaires

How billionaires bypass the oppression of the state

Following up on the previous post about the birth rate among billionaires.

In the previous post, we figured out why billionaires and the ultra-wealthy have a good birth rate compared to the general population—they successfully bypass the problem of state regulation that suffocates the psyche. Other people, living as if in a cage under the supervision of a “civil servant-trainer,” begin to behave like hunted animals with a lost instinct for procreation.

Why, then, do billionaires successfully bypass this problem? Because they have an antidote to state oppression—money and influence. With great fortunes, they buy themselves an immunity and peace of mind unknown to mere mortals. What is an inevitable obligation for us is, for them, a solvable organizational matter involving a couple of phone calls.

Here is how the elite free themselves from the problems that stifle everyone else:

1) An army of lawyers: For a wealthy person, any legal battle with the state ends before it even begins. Fines will be contested and overturned; loopholes in the law will be found. Billionaires do not fear laws—they turn them to their advantage. If it is necessary to bypass stupid regulation, they hire the best lawyers and lobby for the necessary amendments.

2) Personal assistants: You won’t find the wealthy in queues at clinics or government service centers. They have assistants who handle all the paperwork for them. Bureaucratic routine is outsourced to paid employees. The stress from bureaucracy for them is zero—they don’t immerse themselves in it personally.

3) Private jets and drivers: They are not threatened by the loss of their driver’s license for speeding—they have personal drivers who deal with the traffic police themselves. They don’t stand in stuffy buses or squeeze into the subway. A private jet saves them from humiliating border inspections. They do not feel the “shepherd’s whip” with which the stationary bandit drives us in everyday life.

4) Private schools and medicine: Their children study in elite schools and universities, outside the system of mandatory standards to which everyone else is subjected. They don’t need to worry that a state school will negatively affect the child—they simply move to the private sector. The same goes for medicine: any problem is solved for money in a private clinic, bypassing the queues and low quality of state hospitals.

5) Tax minimization: While income tax is automatically deducted from your salary, large corporations and their owners hide profits in offshore accounts and use tax breaks.

6) A billionaire pays the state relatively less than you do as a percentage of their income—even though it would seem it should be the other way around. But they have the best accountants, financial consultants, and the ability to move their business where the tax is lower. As a result, the super-wealthy often avoid the bulk of the tax burden, shifting it onto the middle class.

7) Private security: Many billionaires simply don’t need the state police—they have their own private security service. Security often has access to weapons, special control systems, and high-tech surveillance (from CCTV systems to internet tracking tools). Consequently, a billionaire can set the rules on their own property (mansions, corporate campuses, “closed” gated communities), often ignoring state laws.

8) Influence and connections: Finally, the cleverest install and remove rulers. If a law hinders them, they will see to it that it is changed. If a regulator pressures their industry, they will find a way to the right minister. The state serves big capital rather than commanding it. In a sense, billionaires keep the state on a short leash, using it for their own interests.

Taken together, this produces a striking effect: most state restrictions practically do not apply to the super-wealthy. They live as if outside the state—or above it. The rules are written for you, not for them. That is why their hands are free where you are bound hand and foot.

P.S. Specifically for the authoritarian-right who see no problem in this: Elon Musk’s 12 children in no way compensate for the zero children of millions of ordinary people.

Voluntarist, Bitarch

The State is Stifling the Birth Rate: Why Billionaires Multiply While Ordinary People Are Dying Out

The wealthiest people on the planet are not dying out at all—on the contrary, they have more children than the average citizen. Research shows that among billionaires, the average number of children per family is around 3.2, whereas for ordinary people in developed countries, it barely exceeds 1.5, and even then, not everywhere. Simply put, many billionaires have 3–4 children or more, while the average taxpayer struggles to decide on a second. Look at the examples: Elon Musk—the world’s wealthiest entrepreneur—is the father of at least 12 children. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has four children. Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg recently became a father for the third time. Many of the largest entrepreneurs have families far larger than the average.

Where does such fecundity come from? Because they can afford it! Financially, of course, but it is not just about money as such. It is about the freedom that capital provides them. Billionaires can “buy” themselves freedom from many of the restrictions that hold others back. And first and foremost—freedom from the pressure of the state. They have effectively bought an indulgence from the system that stifles everyone else. While you spend your best years fighting bureaucracy and paying taxes, they have walled themselves off from this oppression and are calmly raising their dynasties. Freedom breeds wealth and children—that is the formula of the elite.

And what about ordinary people? Why has having many children become a luxury for them? Look at the daily reality of the average citizen: it resembles the life of an animal in a cage. You and I are surrounded by the constant grip of the system. And every day under this pressure leaves its mark. Hellish bureaucracy, taxes and levies, regulations at every turn, fines for every little thing, licenses and permits for everything, bans on many types of activities and behavioral models—each of these factors adds anxiety and pressure. As a result, the ordinary citizen lives with a constant feeling that they owe something to the state, that they are under supervision and prohibition.

Such chronic stress is not the best atmosphere for having children, right? Try starting a large family when your head is filled with tax returns and your account could be frozen over an unpaid fine. The body reacts to constant tension predictably: libido is suppressed, and the hormonal balance is disrupted. Nature “understands” that in a state of danger and stress, it is not the time to reproduce.

And these are not empty words. Even in zoos, the obvious has long been noticed. Animals in captivity under chronic stress stop reproducing or sharply reduce their fertility. Many animals do not produce offspring while languishing in cages until their conditions are improved. In cheetahs and white rhinos in captivity, libido practically disappears and birth rates drop.

In humans, as research shows, stress, anxiety, and depression also reduce fertility. And it is precisely the absence of imposed stress that allows billionaires to calmly have as many children as they wish, without looking back at bureaucratic hurdles and financial nooses.

What should be done if we truly want to raise the birth rate, not just among the rich? Some socialists have the answer ready: let’s take money from the billionaires and give it to the poor, introduce new benefits, maternity capital, tax breaks, etc. But this is a false solution. State redistribution will not lead to a baby boom, but it will certainly lead to even greater control over citizens. In many countries, authorities introduced generous “pro-natalist” benefits and payments, but the birth rate hardly grew, and over time it actually fell. Meanwhile, the tax burden on working citizens increased. Analysis of global experience clearly shows: almost everywhere the state tried to administratively increase the birth rate, these attempts failed miserably.

Instead of strengthening state supervision over the family, we must do the exact opposite: remove state barriers and give people the freedom to decide for themselves how many children to have. Abolish those very taxes and regulations that stifle human life. Remove the stationary bandit—and people will begin to reproduce naturally once again.

Voluntarist, Bitarch