Brennan Program Justice Talk 2025 #6 How do they get away with it? Billionaire morality in an age of economic injustice

Economic inequality is a growing scourge on today’s world. At the apex of this massively unfair system are the global billionaires – an ultra-elite social class who have sequestered the world’s wealth while others languish in poverty and hunger. The immense social and political power billionaires possess cannot be explained by their wealth alone. Coupled with the financial resources they command is a set of inter-connected myths that portray billionaires as a ‘force for good’. This seminar will review the myths of the good billionaire and how they serve to vanquish the democratic promise of shared prosperity and human flourishing. The seminar also discusses how undermining the myths can lead to a new moral and political vision for an economically just future where the wealth created by human activity is shared by the many rather than hoarded by the few.

This seminar is based on: Rhodes, C. (2005) Stinking Rich: The Four Myths of the Good Billionaire, Bristol: Bristol University Press.

Please register and email any special dietary requirements to brennanprogram@uts.edu.au

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