A world without billionaires. Here's how.
We can build something better. The first step is imagining how we get there.
When people are broke and scared, they’re easier to control, and the billionaires know it. In this first essay, I share why I started World Without Billionaires (formerly Defiant Confusion) and why I think our survival depends on needing less from the people who profit off our pain.
They want us desperate. I want us defiant.
What if we built a world where billionaires were obsolete? Where their money and power had no value?
This thought has been on my mind a lot lately.
There's a kind of despondency that comes from living a life you don't want. It's what we all have to do to survive, right? It's just how things are.
But is it? Because lately it's looking more and more like the system is designed this way on purpose, to make a select few insanely rich and keep the rest of us tired, poor and desperate.
When we feel powerless, we're more likely to go with the flow, and that's what billionaires depend on – because the status quo benefits them.
We're being exploited. We don't own our media, our software or our data. Quality is being stripped from products even as prices climb. Companies are charging more, offering less and locking us into systems we can't control. Greedflation. Planned obsolescence. Enshitification.
Despair is a natural response to harm like this, but it doesn’t have to be the only response. We've been conditioned to accept this system as inevitable, but we can also reject it.
As a chronically-ill autistic person, I've definitely felt trapped by my circumstances and felt hopeless about the future. I spent years trying to make room for myself in a system that wasn't designed for me (because, in truth, it wasn't designed for most of us).
Then, purely out of necessity, I started to find ways to live outside the status quo, to build a life that made sense to me and had space for me. I started accommodating my needs. I started listening to my gut, to what I knew I needed, rather than the ‘should’s people placed on me. And things got better.
We can just… do what we want.
We won’t be able to rebuild the world overnight, but I think we can start to untangle ourselves from it. Take a moment to imagine the world you want to live in and what steps we could take to get there.
The good news is we can start now, where we are, with what we have.
People are already doing this in small, amazing ways. They're growing food on balconies. Hosting tool libraries. Running refill shops. Sharing knowledge. Reciprocating care.
In my case, I've stopped using Meta products (I already don't use Twitter) and started spending time on Neocities and Bluesky instead, and I buy from independent online shops like Peace with the Wild instead of Amazon. They're tiny choices, but they're aligned with my values. And they're a first step in doing more.
These acts of imagination are acts of defiance and power. Because the truth is we have can have a say in the world we live in. Not just the power to say no but the power to say yes to something different.
It’s not the easy path, but it's the necessary and worthwhile one.
That’s what this newsletter is about. World Without Billionaires is a weekly space to share resistance, put a name to the harm and remind each other that none of us are alone in this.
I don’t know exactly where it’ll lead, but I know I’d rather be here, choosing defiance, than being tricked into thinking I don’t have a say.
I'm glad to have you here. I hope this newsletter can be of use to someone.
Snails against the machine
Small ways we’re taking back control of our world
Julian Brown (@naturejab) is turning plastic waste into fuel
@dragonflyatx4 shows us how to subvert plant patents
Tiffany Ferg (@tiffanyferg) did a deep dive on how the internet is shaped by tech billionaire loser freaks and how it impacts our lives
Late-stage updates
This week in capitalist whatthefuckery
‘Mobile home’ communities, some of the last affordable housing in the US, are being targeted by private equity firms.
A video by More Perfect Union shows how investors are incentivised to prey on vulnerable people just trying to live their lives.
It’s one of many ways the system is built to exploit the vulnerable – another reminder that those in power won’t act in our best interest unless we force them to.
Shiny things from the curio cabinet
Things I’m noticing, loving or want to share
It seems like we’ve had our last frost here in the southeast of England. There’s even a robin building a nest in the birdhouse in our little garden. It’s officially spring! 🌱
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