This diagram compares two paths for organizing the same economic activity. On the RIGHT (oligarchic path), we model the current reality of 10 major tech companies:11 Google, Meta, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Tesla, Oracle, Nvidia, Netflix, and X (Twitter). These companies extract massive value from billions of workers, users, and communities, concentrating wealth, carbon emissions, political power, and health outcomes in the hands of a few hundred individuals.
On the LEFT (democratic path), we show an alternative: the same value creators organized through worker cooperatives9,10 and platform cooperatives, where wealth, power, and resources flow equitably to the millions who actually create the value.
Same sources. Two opposite flows. Four dimensions of inequality.
An oligarch earns in 5 days what a worker earns in an entire lifetime (40 years). That's $4.4 billion vs $39,000 annually.
200 oligarchs emit as much carbon as 133,000 workers. One oligarch's 2,000 tonnes/year equals 667 workers at 3 tonnes/year each.
An oligarch has 5 million times the political influence of a worker through lobbying, campaign donations, and media ownership ($5M vs $1 per person).
Oligarchs live to 90 years on average while the poorest communities die at 72 years - wealth literally buys decades of life.
Oligarchic: Wealth 0.95, Carbon 0.92 (near-perfect inequality)
Democratic: Wealth 0.45, Carbon 0.35 (equitable distribution)
200 oligarchs control more wealth than 2 million workers combined. That's 10,000:1 concentration of economic power.