The causes and consequences of plutocracy This is the second
response to an excerpt from Chrystia Freelandâ€™s Plutocrats:
The Rise of the New Global Super-Rich and the Fall of Everyone
Else, published this week by Penguin Press. The first response
can be read here. Todayâ€™s plutocracy, as described by Chrystia
Freeland, can make for an ugly spectacle. It is an increasingly
stateless and distant class. The very rich may sometimes dress
scruffily or express an affection for common tastes, but their
wealth naturally separates them from the rest of the public. It
isolates them physically, as they flit from palace to palace in
private jets. And it isolates them psychically, as they grow
comfortable with the view that their wealth is not merely the
fruit of talent and work but the mark of superiority. Their
wealth and isolation often contributes to a shortfall in empathy
(or exacerbates a pre-existing condition, which may have helped
raise them to plutocratic status in the first place). They are
more likely to fe