On the cowardice of the superrich

As their wealth has exploded, their walls have risen. To them, Covid lockdowns were a feature, not a bug

What follows is a full list of chief executives of big companies who called out governmental overreach in 2020.

Elon Musk. And, umm… Elon Musk.

When lockdowns cratered the economy, I figured CEOs and Wall Street titans would push back, especially once they saw how little risk Covid posed to their employees.

I was wrong. Nor did top executives stand up to mRNA mandates in 2021. Many big corporations embraced them despite employee dissent.

A new book has me thinking about why I got this so wrong.

It’s not a Constitutional manifesto or a history of pandemics. In fact, it doesn’t mention Covid at all - and it’s a novel, not non-fiction. Yet its description of the gilded lives of the superrich helps explain the failures of the last three years.

(To find out what book I mean, and why I was so wrong, subscribe.)