The Billionaires' Manifesto

By Kurt Opprecht

A satirical take on the ultimate agenda of the upper class – ostensibly authored by a proud billionaire – that shines a light into the corner where otherwise good people hide their surprisingly avaricious rationales. This “little gold book” urges the upper 1% to proudly reclaim their rightful place in a modern day aristocracy. It lays out the blueprint for a return to a “modern feudal system” where corporations have the same rights as people, poverty is a crime and slavery is legal again. As “Thurston H.” would have it, the dawn of “the New Plutocracy.”

Inside:
•The Five Myths that Keep Complacency Alive
•A blueprint of the coming Corporate State
•Strategies for Fear Mongering in the New Millennium
•The Billionaires' "20/20 Vision"
•A Call to Avarice

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kurt Opprecht
• Release date: Aug 19, 2012
• ISBN: 9781476371085

Kurt Opprecht

Kurt Opprecht is the author of The Billionaires’ Manifesto, and editor of How to Rule the World for Fun and Profit. As a journalist based in New York City and New Orleans, he has written for The New York Times, The Daily Beast, The Economist, The Sun, numerous other publications, and more corporate clients than he’d like to admit. His play, Dos Coyotes, ran at the Manhattan Repertory Theater in 2012. Kurt studied communications and competed in debate at Southern Utah University, then transferred to Reed College, where he completed his BA in philosophy. He spent four years in Tokyo, working as a radio DJ, actor, writer, and teacher before moving back to the US. He teaches writing for NYU's School of Professional Studies. His latest novel, Playing With Fire, is a journey into the jungles of Thailand, the heart of Pandora, and the soul of the Promethean prank.

Book preview

The Billionaires’ Manifesto

by

Kurt Opprecht

Copyright © Kurt Opprecht, 2016

Second Edition

Electronic Version

Published by

Babylon Moon Media

at Smashwords

Babylon Moon

New York and New Orleans

ISBN: 9781476371085

1. Politics. 2. Satire. 3. Economics.

Cover design and art by R. Black.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

A Word from the Author

OPENING SALVO

OUR 2020 VISION

TALKING THE TALK

- The Five Myths That Keep ComplacencyAlive

WORD UP

- The Luntz Memo

- The H Memo

- Sticks & Stones

- Fear Mongering in the Post-9/11 Landscape

WALKING THE WALK

- Tactics

- King and Queen Making

THE CLUB

- Cheerleaders and Boosters

- Heroes

- Goats, Turncoats & Petit Bourgeois

A CALL TO AVARICE

- The Moral Burden of Wealth

About the Authors

Acknowledgments

Sources and Bibliography

A word from the author

Things were different when I penned the first edition of the Billionaires’ Manifesto; but yet, things were very much the same. There was a billionaire running for president, and although he didn’t frighten the women and children the way the current billionaire candidate does, he probably agreed with more of the tenets of this manifesto.

Although it may seem that things will always be as they are, they surely will evolve. My goal is to aid in that evolution by shining a light into a well hidden corner – the corner where otherwise good people hide their surprisingly avaricious rationales.

On this page I’m writing to you straight, but this is the only page here in which I do. If you’ll forgive this lapse of satire, let me clarify the fact that I am not a billionaire, or even a millionaire. This is my way of smiling at the sky.

Although this book is satire, I mean the sum of it in all sincerity. I stand behind, as well as in front of, this thin account of the billionaire ethos: neo-feudalism, as some might call it. This economic phase through which we have been swimming for some time now masquerades under the banners of capitalism and prosperity, but dances to the tune of fear and selfishness. Eventually it shall wither and die as we all move onward to a more uplifting tune.

Kurt Opprecht

2016

THE BILLIONAIRES’ MANIFESTO

My Friends and Colleagues,

A spectre is haunting the global economy, the spectre of Communism. Call it Class Warfare, call it The Ninety-Nine Percent, call it the common cold, we all know what it is. It grates against every bone in our bodies, but we have come to accept it, like the aches and pains of growing old. We feel the spectre leering over our shoulder and we brush it off as though it were a cockroach, but he is back again before we’ve made another million. The children rise up in the streets and we have them arrested. The media makes a fuss and we scare them back into their enclaves. The politicians rattle their cages and we toss them fresh contributions. We’ve gotten so used to this song and dance that we have almost forgotten how it used to be.

But History will show that we are at a turning point. This will prove to be the time when the ship of commerce finally tossed overboard the tattered vestiges of Marxism, Socialism, Communism and the Nanny State mythology of the 20th Century. The captain charts the course, and my prosperous friends, the captain is us. We have rebuilt the ship of commerce and now it’s time to load her canons and strike out for adventure. Gather around, and let me show you the charts.

Only the Beginning

As we in the One Percent well know, our bottom line is in good shape. Very good shape. The last thirty years of financial deregulation, flattening tax schedules and fear mongering have brought us farther than we could have imagined back in the 70’s.

In the US, for example, our households are carving out a fatter share of the nation’s income than we have at any time since 1928. US One Percenters raked in