He was terrified. His eyes were blindfolded but he could hear them. Last week he was talking to the King of France and talking about plans to expand his power to the east, drinking expensive wine, sleeping with the most beautiful women, eating the most exotic fruits and living the life of a billionaire. Now here he was, blindfolded in dirty clothes, tears down his cheeks and panic in his head. He was still hoping that his associate could bring the money, talk to other powerful people, they could rescue him right away. Somebody pulled the lever, his feet hugged emptiness, his body made several contractions and became silent. The crowd cheered. It had begun. Fall of 1713.
Now here remained two billionaires who sat near the fireplace, drinking ale and looking in the eye of the inevitable. They knew they were next. They didn’t have time, times had changed.
Sam, who was always eager to learn history and was a keen learner started first.
“The only reason why they want to tear us apart is that there are two sides, rich and lavish and by taking all of our money they are not really solving their poverty problem; wealth is just passing hands. We have to create a middle class that will be in between us and poor people will try to become middle class, then upper, then rich. They will be busy all their lives climbing that ladder and will not even think about a quick way of raising up all at once against us. They are the majority, but if we keep them separated into several groups that think differently and compete for the resources then we may be little bit safer.”
Peter nodded, and added, “Showing all the money and having it in the physical vault actually makes it too tempting to steal from us; the wealth is physical and all you have to do is to bust that door open and reach for all the gold that shines so bright.”
“Good point, I think if we found the way to transfer and store wealth in a lightweight or even some abstract form, then it wouldn’t be so obvious. And less tempting.” They kept a silence for a little bit, each deep in thought.
Sam continued, “Another problem is that only we have this lifestyle. So many people want it but they don’t have it. We have to allow other people to have it. Some kind of lottery. Also celebrities and other entertainers who are always with the crowd have to attain rich lifestyle attributes as well. So it will be a vision that many people can access.”
“You mean those clowns and singers that we treat badly in the ballrooms?” asked Peter, almost spilling his beer on his clothes. “Are you out of your mind?!”
“Yes, you heard me right”. After a short moment Sam added, “If we take it a step further, we can create an idea, a dream, a man from the village that worked his way into riches all from hard work and little bit of luck. Nobody has to know what the proportion of work vs luck is,” added Sam, taking a sip of ale and winking at his old friend.
“We can create some kind of newspaper which will annually tell people how hard-working people can make it to the upper class. Create a myth of a ‘self made’ person.”
“What about us? We still look odd and enormously rich and powerful among all these moderately rich people?”
“Well my friend, we have to create an aura of an approachable, average Joe, wear some glasses and smile, wear the same simple clothes as everybody else and try to attain simple habits like going to the same bars as they do, living in a simple house at some point, riding a simple horse and blend into being just like everybody else. And since the money will be attributed in some other form and will not be in sight, regular people will leave us alone.”
“Even if we control 90% of the wealth?”
“Even if we control 90% of the wealth.”
SideNote:
This idea came to me when I was in Seattle with my wife.
There were poor people who were on every corner asking for money and I thought that if we had to carry all our money in a huge transparent bag they would just jump on us and take away all the money. It’s nice that everything is digital now.