Christopher Marquis is the Sinyi Professor of Management at the University of Cambridge and author of The Profiteers: How Business Privatizes Profits and Socializes Cost.
The myths that billionaires earn, invent, or give their way to virtue don’t survive scrutiny. Billionaire wealth isn’t built on genius — it rests on public investment and ends with the power to shape law, labor, and markets.
Drawing on a century-old theory about the inevitability of elite control, billionaire venture capitalist Marc Andreessen champions Silicon Valley as a new ruling class. His worldview revives the reactionary dream of greatness unencumbered by the masses.