In Washington, D.C., In his farewell message to the country on Wednesday, President Joe Biden said that the United States was becoming a “oligarchy” of tech billionaires. But what does an autocracy really mean?
What does an oligarchy mean?
To put it simply, an oligarchy is a small group of people who control what the government does.
It was very mean of Biden to use the word “oligarchy” to compare the current situation—when the richest men in the world are supporting President-elect Donald Trump—with some of the worst governments in history.
Next week, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, will co-host a Trump inauguration party with rich Republican donors. Jeff Bezos, the founder of the billionaire company Amazon, got the exclusive rights to watch and show first lady Melania Trump’s new documentary in theatres.
A month ago, Meta, Amazon, and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman gave $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund. And Elon Musk’s super PAC spent about $200 million to help Trump win.
But Biden’s claim was confusing because both Republicans and Democrats have used their wealth from Silicon Valley to help their political careers.
Where did the term come from?
Like a lot of political words, “oligarchy” comes from Ancient Greek and means “few people are in charge.” An oligarchy, on the other hand, is more about wealth than nobility and family history, unlike an aristocracy.
“Democracy is safer and more free from civil strife than oligarchy,” Aristotle wrote in his book “Politics.” “In oligarchies two kinds of strife spring up: faction between different members of the oligarchy and faction between the oligarchs and the people.”
What kinds of things are oligarchies?
Scholars have called a number of countries oligarchies. When the Soviet Union broke up in 1991, properties and organisations that used to belong to the government were taken over by businesses who were getting richer and richer. These men were called billionaire oligarchs.
The mix of business and politics that started with Russian President Boris Yeltsin was broken up by President Vladimir Putin, who has his own favourite billionaires and has promised to let them keep their money as long as they stay loyal to him.
The Philippines has been called an oligarchy because of its history of colonialism and its large families with a lot of power. Rodrigo Duterte, the country’s past president, said he had broken down the system. Some people said that all he did was favour a different group of capitalists.
The time of apartheid Some experts also thought that South Africa had a white racial oligarchy.
There were already worries about whether the world’s two biggest economies were turning into oligarchies before Biden’s speech. This was because the wealth gap was growing in both the US and China.
Next week, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, will co-host a Trump inauguration party with rich Republican donors. Jeff Bezos, the founder of the billionaire company Amazon, got the exclusive rights to watch and show first lady Melania Trump’s new documentary in theatres.
A month ago, Meta, Amazon, and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman gave $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund. And Elon Musk’s super PAC spent about $200 million to help Trump win.
But Biden’s claim was confusing because both Republicans and Democrats have used their wealth from Silicon Valley to help their political careers.
Where did the term come from?
Like a lot of political words, “oligarchy” comes from Ancient Greek and means “few people are in charge.” An oligarchy, on the other hand, is more about wealth than nobility and family history, unlike an aristocracy.
“Democracy is safer and more free from civil strife than oligarchy,” Aristotle wrote in his book “Politics.” “In oligarchies two kinds of strife spring up: faction between different members of the oligarchy and faction between the oligarchs and the people.”
What kinds of things are oligarchies?
Scholars have called a number of countries oligarchies. When the Soviet Union broke up in 1991, properties and organisations that used to belong to the government were taken over by businesses who were getting richer and richer. These men were called billionaire oligarchs.
The mix of business and politics that started with Russian President Boris Yeltsin was broken up by President Vladimir Putin, who has his own favourite billionaires and has promised to let them keep their money as long as they stay loyal to him.
The Philippines has been called an oligarchy because of its history of colonialism and its large families with a lot of power. Rodrigo Duterte, the country’s past president, said he had broken down the system. Some people said that all he did was favour a different group of capitalists.
The time of apartheid Some experts also thought that South Africa had a white racial oligarchy.
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There were already worries about whether the world’s two biggest economies were turning into oligarchies before Biden’s speech. This was because the wealth gap was growing in both the US and China.
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