How Billionaires 'Look Sideways as People Die in the Very Supply Chains of Our Businesses'
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A wealthy heir to a major German chemicals manufacturer has detailed just how heartless the super-rich can be in prioritising the pursuit of profits over all other considerations.
Marlene Engelhorn, who convened a citizens assembly in Austria to decide how to redistribute €25 million of her inheritance, told the Excessive Wealth Concentration and Democracy conference in Budapest on 23-24 June that "our comfort is always at the centre of what we are trying to protect and this has a direct effect on you because we will burn the planet to protect our comfort zone".
She continued:
We will literally look sideways as people die in the very supply chains of our businesses that we are proud of. You must understand this
Marlene Engelhorn
The annual conference at the Central European University campus focussed on three central questions: how does excessive wealth harm democracy, can hyper-wealth produce public goods, and how can we contain excessive wealth?
The keynote address was given by Katharina Pistor, a law professor at Columbia University and author of The Code of Capital: How the Law and Wealth Create Inequality, on 'Transforming the Law of Capitalism'. Engelhorn - whose inheritance will go to 77 NGOs and organisations over the next five years - concluded the conference with a talk titled, 'Inside the Bubble: How the Hyper-Rich View the World'.
Englehorn told the conference that she was "furious" when she learned of her inheritance despite knowing, "I should be grateful and demure, and be like, 'oh thank you'."
She continued: "I was furious. I was angry. And I was angry because I knew it wasn't justice. Nobody should be born and then just get money for it. That is a reflection of a feudal system that stands in stark contradiction to democracy. So, I should have never gotten this wealth to begin with, it shouldn't have been mine."
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Englehorn went on to explain that the rich believe that they deserve their wealth, and therefore think, those who aren't deserve it, before saying: "If you think some people are worth more and some are worth less, politically what this means is that you are more prone to believe in a feudal structure, or a fascist structure, than a democratic one, because democracy in essence believes that everyone is worth the same."
Engelhorn told Byline Times that
To support its work, subscribe to the monthly Byline Times print edition, packed with exclusive investigations, news, and analysis.
Help us build the better media Britain deserves.
A wealthy heir to a major German chemicals manufacturer has detailed just how heartless the super-rich can be in prioritising the pursuit of profits over all other considerations.
Marlene Engelhorn, who convened a citizens assembly in Austria to decide how to redistribute €25 million of her inheritance, told the Excessive Wealth Concentration and Democracy conference in Budapest on 23-24 June that "our comfort is always at the centre of what we are trying to protect and this has a direct effect on you because we will burn the planet to protect our comfort zone".
She continued:
We will literally look sideways as people die in the very supply chains of our businesses that we are proud of. You must understand this
Marlene Engelhorn
The annual conference at the Central European University campus focussed on three central questions: how does excessive wealth harm democracy, can hyper-wealth produce public goods, and how can we contain excessive wealth?
The keynote address was given by Katharina Pistor, a law professor at Columbia University and author of The Code of Capital: How the Law and Wealth Create Inequality, on 'Transforming the Law of Capitalism'. Engelhorn - whose inheritance will go to 77 NGOs and organisations over the next five years - concluded the conference with a talk titled, 'Inside the Bubble: How the Hyper-Rich View the World'.
Englehorn told the conference that she was "furious" when she learned of her inheritance despite knowing, "I should be grateful and demure, and be like, 'oh thank you'."
She continued: "I was furious. I was angry. And I was angry because I knew it wasn't justice. Nobody should be born and then just get money for it. That is a reflection of a feudal system that stands in stark contradiction to democracy. So, I should have never gotten this wealth to begin with, it shouldn't have been mine."
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Englehorn went on to explain that the rich believe that they deserve their wealth, and therefore think, those who aren't deserve it, before saying: "If you think some people are worth more and some are worth less, politically what this means is that you are more prone to believe in a feudal structure, or a fascist structure, than a democratic one, because democracy in essence believes that everyone is worth the same."
Engelhorn told Byline Times that
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