What could be more of a guilty pleasure than having money, and lots of it?
As part of KWI’s annual theme ‚guilty pleasures‘, economic historian Guido Alfani (Bocconi University, Milan) presented his most recent book „As Gods Among Men“ (Princeton University Press) at KWI. Alfani gave an overview over the core findings and theses of his book: From how to define who is rich, to three common paths to affluence – nobility, entrepreneurship, finance – and social evaluation of these paths. Then, Alfani moved on to explore the role of the rich in society. Throughout history, there existed different strategies, such as magnificence – a display of wealth that could raise their city’s prestige – or charity. Beyond that, the rich were expected to use their private wealth for public good in times of crisis. Today, however, as crises like the COVID19 pandemic have shown, the rich are no longer made to contribute to public responses to crises. Instead, they continue to become even more rich.
In the discussion, Guido Alfani, moderator Danilo Scholz and the audience raised and discussed questions about the increasing impunity of the rich, what the election of figures such as Donald Trump and the political involvement of Elon Musk mean for the future role of the rich, and whether or not the public is really expecting the rich to contribute more.
