Скачать или смотреть The Digital Pharaohs: Big Tech, Billionaire Power & Wealth Inequality 2025

#WealthInequality #BigTech #DigitalFeudalism

Episode 5 of The Machine That Took Our Work exposes the digital pharaohs — the tech titans and billionaires steering our future. Wealth concentration has reached staggering levels. Oxfam’s 2025 inequality report shows that total billionaire wealth jumped by US$2 trillion in 2024, creating 204 new billionaires — nearly four every week. Their fortunes grew three times faster than in 2023. On average, each billionaire gained about US$2 million per day, while the richest ten gained roughly US$100 million per day.

Oxfam warns that if current trends continue, the world may see its first five trillionaires within a decade. Even more striking: 60 % of billionaire wealth now comes from inheritance, cronyism, corruption, or monopoly power, and 2023 became the first year where more new billionaires were created through inherited wealth than entrepreneurship.

Monopoly power fuels much of this rise. In several major European countries, Amazon alone captures 70 % or more of all online purchases. Oxfam estimates that nearly one-fifth of billionaire wealth is directly tied to monopolies — dominance that allows a handful of corporations to set prices, pressure workers, and reshape the digital world in their own image.

The imbalance extends globally: the richest 1 % in the Global North extracted US$263 billion from the Global South in 2023 through the financial system, even as 3.6 billion people continue to live below the global poverty line of US$6.85 per day.

This episode asks: Who really owns the future? What happens when technology and power concentrate into the hands of a few? Join us as we peel back the layers of digital feudalism and examine how billionaire wealth and Big Tech shape the world we all live in.