The goal of an oligarch is to rival the power of the state

(written by lawrence krubner, however indented passages are often quotes). You can contact lawrence at: lawrence@krubner.com, or follow me on Twitter.

I saw this on Tumblr:

If you have $10 million then you can buy everything in life that you might find pleasant. You can own 3 houses and a bunch of cool cars and you can send all of your children to good private schools. If you want more than $10 million, then you are no longer seeking money, you are seeking power. $20 million, $100 million, $1 billion — the extra money doesn’t let you get nicer things for you or your loved ones. It does put you on the path that can lead to oligarchy, that is, a society where a few wealthy families can combine their power to form an alliance that holds more power than the apparatus of the state. And that leads automatically to corruption.

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