It seems to me that the threat to civilization isn't the existence of billionaires per se. It is a capitalist system that permits the extreme and obscene concentration of wealth and power in the hands of a comparatively small number of individuals, who are free to use their extreme wealth and power to do as they please with the rest of us. Some of these individuals may be altruistic, while others may be self-serving or psychopathically malevolent. In any case, this extreme concentration of wealth and power is totally at odds with the goals of representative democracy.
"Obscene" has zero content. It's just an emotive term. Also, wealthy people constitute power centers separate from government, which is a good thing since government has far too much power and uses it badly most of the time. That's why the Bolsheviks murdered a huge number of Kulaks and others with wealth.
It seems to me that the threat to civilization isn't the existence of billionaires per se. It is a capitalist system that permits the extreme and obscene concentration of wealth and power in the hands of a comparatively small number of individuals, who are free to use their extreme wealth and power to do as they please with the rest of us. Some of these individuals may be altruistic, while others may be self-serving or psychopathically malevolent. In any case, this extreme concentration of wealth and power is totally at odds with the goals of representative democracy.
"Obscene" has zero content. It's just an emotive term. Also, wealthy people constitute power centers separate from government, which is a good thing since government has far too much power and uses it badly most of the time. That's why the Bolsheviks murdered a huge number of Kulaks and others with wealth.
I don't think Bernie Sanders wants to murder anyone