Winners Take All by Anand Giridharadas

Winner takes all sounds like a cliche from a casino until you realise that it is true to its core.

The book is about how a certain level of wealth motivates the people to move into philanthropy without realising the wider aspects of their wealth accumulation. The historical theory of wealth redistribution which promised that the wealth on top goes down to everyone in the chain has been proven phenomenally wrong. It is not just the inequality that it causes in the society, it also brings the absurd ideas of philanthropy in the heads of the ultra-rich who end up with a notion of knowing and doing the right thing for the humanity. To top it up the misplaced idea of helping the humanity with technology seems like a perfect excuse to keep doing what makes money for you.

The idea of improving productivity never ends up in improvement of wages or the living conditions of the people who are working for these businesses. Additionally, harming the environment, creating chaos in societal structures, raising inequality, bad working culture, and tax evasion etc take it from bad to worse.

Taking is something which is inherent to human nature but taking all is what causes the problems which begin when one doesn't realise how it is taken, and where to stop taking. Where one justifies all the taking in the name of any suitable adjective at hand. This builds a whole ecosystem for inequality where everyone with money bends the rules, deprive others, and claims privilege.

But why does this happen that even the people who started from a humble background end up being part of this elite club? There is no one answer but broadly the lust for wealth, power, and misplaced sense of accomplishment/entitlement compounded by inability of challenging the status quo is the recipe for it.

Philanthropy is defined as the desire to promote the welfare of others, expressed especially by the generous donation of money to good causes. So, next time when a billionaire says philanthropy, take a closer look at the causes it supports, what they propose to do, and what might have caused those causes in the first place.

Peace