More than 11% of the world’s more than 2,000 billionaires have run for election or become politicians, according to a study highlighting the growing power and influence of the super-wealthy.
While billionaires have had mixed success at the ballot box in the U.S., billionaires around the world have a “strong track record” of winning elections and “lean to the Right ideologically,” said the study, which is by three professors at Northwestern University.
“Billionaire politicians are a shockingly common phenomenon,” the study said. “The concentration of massive wealth in the hands of a tiny elite has understandably caused many observers to worry that the ‘super-rich have super-sized political influence.’”
Only the narcissistic ones who need the direct adulation of the people. Most of them are still content to buy politicians and spread disinformation through right wing “think tanks”.
Yes, I’m glad they added this (on why there are more billionaire politicians in authoritarian countries):
Billionaires in (so-called) democracies don’t need to get their hands dirty. They can control the whole polity via well-paid lackeys.