Expert explains why becoming a billionaire today is nearly impossible: 'Eat the rich'

Some people love to gain information about almost everything and would love it equally to share it with people. The same goes with John Lestrange, a historian, teacher, and a published author—who goes by @thehistorywizard on TikTok. Even his two books talk about the representation of genocide in cartoons and video games. He openly talks about social issues and history and recently shared his take on why "billionaires are evil."

"So first, let's put a billion into perspective. One million seconds is about 12 days. One billion seconds is just under 32 years, which means that if you earn $1 every single second and never spend any of it, it would take you about 32 years to earn a single billion dollars." says Lestrange. He continues, "There are people out there with multiple billions of dollars. Based on that math, we can conclude that there's no ethical way to acquire a billion dollars because there is no physically possible way to earn that money solely through the value of your own labor, which means that in order to become a billionaire, you have to steal the labor value of thousands if not millions of people." 

This disparity means billionaires are taking more than half of what workers produce, often investing it without benefiting society. He goes on to say, "There are currently over 582,000 homeless people in the United States, many of which are children. And in the year 2020, there were more than 34 million food-insecure people in the United States. That's about 10% of the population that doesn't know where their next meal is going to come from."

He adds, "According to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, it would cost $20 billion to end homelessness in the United States. There are currently 770 billionaires in the United States." If we divide $20 billion among all 770 billionaires and disregard that Elon Musk alone could pay half of this with the price he paid for Twitter, that still leaves each billionaire with a mere $26 million to contribute. Lestrange mentions, "And yet, despite the ease with which they could end homelessness in the United States, billionaires are wasting their money on vanity projects like dying in a sub at the bottom of the ocean and buying Twitter. There is no room for billionaires in an ethical society. They quite simply shouldn't exist."

Recently, former governor of Minnesota Jesse Ventura, too had a similar opinion on billionaires. He made waves by saying billionaires shouldn't exist because he believes no one works hard enough to earn a billion dollars. In a Reddit video, Ventura, known for his wrestling career and time as governor, passionately argued his point. He talked about his tough jobs, like Navy SEAL training and working with the Minnesota Highway Department, where he operated heavy equipment for long hours at low pay. 

Ventura challenged the idea of extreme wealth, asking if billionaires could handle the same tough jobs he did. "I challenge any billionaire to run the jackhammer for 40 hours for one week and then tell me he works harder than that. No, he doesn't. That's why I believe there should not be a billionaire in the world," Ventura said. His comments highlight concerns about fairness in pay and how hard work is valued in society.

You can follow John Lestrange (@thehistorywizard) on TikTok for more History-related content.