What’s Wrong With Extreme Wealth?

Abstract

The expansion in the wealth of the extremely wealthy has received much attention in recent public and academic debate. In political theory, the phenomenon has only recently begun to be scrutinized. This article builds on these preliminary steps, exploring the normative reasons we have to worry about extreme wealth. Looking at the issues, first, through a distributive lens, we reveal that the excess wealth of the extremely wealthy compounds the injustice of inequality and insufficiency, making the situation distinctly unjust. Through a relational lens, we see that extreme wealth may create societal segregation, which poses distinct threats to solidarity. Finally, when the two previous perspectives interact, the particular ways in which the wealthy can influence society, change rules and norms and bend existing regulation to their advantage open up the possibility of vicious societal feedback loops.