Chapter Content
Okay, so, who are the capitalists *now*, right? That's the question. You know, back in the day, like we're talking, way back, Engels described them as, uh, you know, the folks who owned pretty much everything – the means of subsistence, factories, machines, all that stuff. It was a pretty clear-cut picture, right?
Think about the Carron Works guys, the Cardells and Garbetts. They built it, they funded it, they ran the whole show. And then you had these, like, larger-than-life "robber barons" like Carnegie, Rockefeller, Vanderbilt, right? They were kind of the next level, but their companies were so big, so capital-intensive, that they needed to tap into external funding – that's where the stock market and the banks came in.
But nowadays? It's, like, totally different. That traditional picture of the capitalist? It's just…scattered. Those functions that those big shots used to handle, they're spread out among a ton of different people and groups. So, who gets to wear the "capitalist" crown now?
I mean, you could point to the modern-day founders, you know, your Bezoses, Gateses, Musks. They own stock in the companies they created, sure. But they don't actually own the *stuff* – the steel mills, the oil wells. The companies themselves own that. They mostly just control their companies, if that makes sense.
But, honestly, most big companies aren't even run by founders anymore. They're run by these, like, guys in suits…or maybe no ties now. Career managers who climbed the corporate ladder. Take Amazon, right? Bezos is out, and Andy Jassy, who joined way back in 1997, is running things. He built the web services part of the business, which is the money-maker now. Microsoft is another example. Gates handed it off to Ballmer, and then Nadella came in, a, you know, total company man by that point. Musk, well, he's still doing his thing at Tesla, SpaceX, and…okay, X, right? But even he can’t be everywhere at once.
These professional managers, they're good at, you know, the nitty-gritty details, the bureaucracy of running a huge organization. They might not have that same visionary spark as the founders, but they get the job done. But they don’t have the same, like, cult of personality, right? Like, Doug McMillon runs Walmart, which is huge. But I bet you even some Walmart customers don't know who he is. And you got Françoise Bettencourt, she is the principal stockholder of L’Oréal, but Nicolas Hieronimus is the CEO.
Then you've got your rentiers, like Bettencourt and Alice Walton. Think Mr. Darcy, Emily Brontë, you know? They live off interest and dividends, inherited wealth, and don't really have a job. It's a smaller group these days…unless you count retirees like, you know, Bezos and Gates.
Oh, and don't forget the banks! Back in the day, J.P. Morgan practically created U.S. Steel. Today, Jamie Dimon runs the bank he founded. Then you have the Venture Capital and Private Equity firms. Venture capitalists like John Doerr or Michael Moritz give money to startups hoping for a big payday when they go public. Private equity guys like Steve Schwarzman and Henry Kravis buy established companies and try to make them more profitable before selling them off.
And then there are the specialist providers of capital as a service, which is a mouthful, right? So think of Prologis or AerCap, they're like the landlords of the business world. Supplying capital for production. A lot of their money comes from, you know, our retirement savings and bank loans.
We also have leading executives of international economic organizations like Christine Lagarde at the European Central Bank and Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director of the IMF and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala at the World Trade Organization. Then there's Ajay Banga at the World Bank. Also, note that there is a large number of women in leadership roles.
Influencers are also in this category. Charles Koch, Robert Mercer, George Soros, for example. They use their money to, you know, push their political agendas. Media barons like Rupert Murdoch and, even Bezos with the Washington Post, try to shape public opinion.
And what about the traders? Like, Goldman Sachs or Renaissance Technologies. A lot of what the financial sector does is just moving money around, buying and selling assets. It’s more secondary market trading rather than actually funding new businesses. Also, the asset managers, the Blackrocks, the Fidelitys, the Vanguards. Blackrock manages, like, trillions! They're invested in basically every big company through their index funds. And then there are the institutional investors, like the Norwegian Oil Fund and CalPERS, the California pension fund. They manage huge amounts of money, often through asset managers like Blackrock.
So, are AerCap and Prologis the capitalists? These are the major owners of modern means of production but also not the most important intermediaries in the modern economy. Most of their funding comes not from equity but through loans from financial institutions like banks, insurance companies, and pension funds.
So, you start to wonder, are we *all* capitalists now? When people clean out their parents' houses, they find those old share certificates from the 80s privatization of British Telecom. It was like, a shareholder democracy thing back then. But really, most people don't own shares directly, right? But a lot of people *benefit* from share ownership through pensions or other investments. Wealth is more widely distributed, right? Doesn't mean it's *equal*, but more people have *some* wealth.
A few things happened, right? Homeownership became more common. And low-interest rates drove up house prices. Plus, the whole concept of retirement is relatively new! Most people didn't live long enough to retire, or didn't have any way to support themselves if they did. But now, people live longer and have pensions. And rising incomes and financial innovation have made it easier for people to save and invest.
Even poorer households in places like Britain have some wealth, even if it's not a ton. So, it's complex, right? Wealth isn't equally distributed, but it is more broadly distributed than it used to be. So, maybe, just maybe, the next time you're looking for a capitalist, just take a look in the mirror in your own home. You might be surprised at what you find.