There Are NO Ethical Billionaires
At some point, we have to stop pretending this is innocent.
Billionaires aren’t just a byproduct of ambition or innovation. They are the direct result of systems built to hoard wealth at the top while leaving everyone else to scramble for scraps. But this isn’t about flawed systems alone. It’s about the people who knowingly profit from them—people who understand exactly how and why they’re able to hold more money than they could spend in a hundred lifetimes, while millions live without clean water, safe housing, or medical care.
These billionaires aren’t oblivious. They are willfully unethical.
Even the most beloved among them—those with glowing reputations, charitable foundations, and uplifting personal brands—are complicit. Oprah Winfrey is a perfect example. She is widely admired for good reason. She’s self-made. She built a global media empire. She’s funded schools, awarded scholarships, and championed self-empowerment. People point to her as proof that wealth and goodness can coexist.
And yet—she’s still a billionaire.
That means she’s chosen to retain a level of wealth that could transform entire systems. With one decision, she could wipe out debt, fund universal preschool across a state, or permanently end homelessness in multiple cities. But she doesn’t. And we don’t question it, because her generosity makes us feel better about the fact that she’s hoarding resources. Her charity becomes her shield.
But ethics aren’t measured by how many schools you build after you’ve accumulated billions. They’re measured by the choice to keep the billions in the first place.
The same moral sleight of hand plays out in the Giving Pledge, the initiative launched by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett to encourage billionaires to give away half their wealth. More than 240 of the world’s wealthiest people signed on, including Oprah. But over a decade later, only a small fraction have actually decreased their net worth. In fact, most are far richer now than when they pledged. Their investments grow faster than their giving.
Meanwhile, much of their "philanthropy" is routed through private foundations or donor-advised funds that offer massive tax advantages and allow them to retain control.
Source: Institute for Policy Studies – Gilded Giving 2022
They aren't dismantling the system. They're gaming it.
A rare exception is Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia. In 2022, he transferred ownership of the entire $3 billion company to a specially designed trust and nonprofit to ensure all profits—about $100 million a year—go to fighting climate change. He gave up control. He gave up the title. He built a system designed not to benefit him.
Source: Patagonia – Earth is now our only shareholder
That’s what it looks like to actually divest from power. But even then—he waited until he was 83.
So where’s the line? How much wealth is too much?
Most people draw that line just above where they are. Someone with $100,000 says billionaires are greedy. Someone with $10 million says they’re not the problem. But we know better. The difference between $50,000 and $500,000 changes your lifestyle. The difference between $500,000 and $5 billion changes entire systems. It buys influence, manipulates markets, and locks in dynasties. That level of wealth can’t exist without others going without.
According to the World Bank, over 800 million people—more than one in every 11 humans—live on less than $3.00 per day, the current international poverty line.
Source: World Bank – Poverty and Inequality Platform
Meanwhile, billionaires spend more on tax shelters than most nations spend on education. And they know it. They have wealth managers, lawyers, analysts, strategists. They understand what their money could do. They know what it means to keep it anyway.
That is not ethical. That is not ignorance. That is deliberate immorality.
Some will argue it’s the system that allows it, and that’s true. But the system is made up of choices, and billionaires are making the most selfish ones imaginable. They are choosing legacy over justice. Power over equity. Control over humanity.
And for every pledge, every grant, every glossy foundation website—there are millions of people still waiting for basic dignity. People dying from curable diseases. Kids going to school hungry. Entire communities suffering so one person can keep their private jet.
There are no ethical billionaires. Not because they’re misunderstood. Not because they don’t care. But because they know—and they still choose to keep it all.
So if you’re wondering where the line is—the one between ethical and unethical wealth—it’s not fuzzy. It’s not relative. It’s here:
When your excess comes at the cost of someone else’s survival, you’ve crossed it.
And billionaires crossed it a long time ago.