''Plutocrats: The Rise of the New Global Super Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else'' is a book about

economic inequality There are wide varieties of economic inequality, most notably income inequality measured using the distribution of income (the amount of money people are paid) and wealth inequality measured using the distribution of wealth (the amount of ...

Chrystia Freeland Christina Alexandra Freeland (born August 2, 1968) is a Canadian politician serving as the tenth and current deputy prime minister of Canada since 2019 and the minister of finance since 2020. A member of the Liberal Party, Freeland represent ...

, first published in 2012. In 2013, it won the

Lionel Gelber Prize The Lionel Gelber Prize is a literary award for English non-fiction books on foreign policy. Founded in 1989 by Canadian diplomat Lionel Gelber, the prize awards "the world’s best non-fiction book in English on foreign affairs that seeks to deep ...

and the

National Business Book Award The National Business Book Award is an award presented to Canadian business authors. The award, presented every year since 1985, is sponsored by Bennett Jones, ''The Globe and Mail'', and The Walrus, DeGroote, and supported by CPA Canada and with ...

Content

''Plutocrats'' discusses the lives of ultra high net-worth individuals. The book divides the very wealthy into three main groups—

Russian oligarchs Russian oligarchs ( Russian: олигархи, romanized: ''oligarkhi'') are business oligarchs of the former Soviet republics who rapidly accumulated wealth in the 1990s via the Russian privatisation that followed the dissolution of the Soviet ...

, Wall Street financial professionals, and American

business executives An executive officer is a person who is principally responsible for leading all or part of an organization, although the exact nature of the role varies depending on the organization. In many militaries and police forces, an executive officer, o ...

—and devotes considerable attention to how the third group got so rich. It argues that the very rich are often products of fortuitous circumstances, but nonetheless take themselves to deserve their wealth because contemporary plutocrats tend to earn money by working; however, the book does not reach a position one way or another about whether contemporary wealth is

meritocratic Meritocracy (''merit'', from Latin , and ''-cracy'', from Ancient Greek 'strength, power') is the notion of a political system in which economic goods and/or political power are vested in individual people based on talent, effort, and achi ...

, nor does it investigate

inherited wealth Inheritance is the practice of receiving private property, titles, debts, entitlements, privileges, rights, and obligations upon the death of an individual. The rules of inheritance differ among societies and have changed over time. Officia ...

Reception

A review in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', while generally praising ''Plutocrats'', noted that it was "short of solutions" to the problems it identifies. According to Anthony Gould, ''Plutocrats'' argues that the American Dream is "apparently over", because American society no longer rewards entrepreneurs who produce useful or valuable goods and instead favours financial chicanery as a way to get rich.

Justin Trudeau Justin Pierre James Trudeau ( , ; born December 25, 1971) is a Canadian politician who is the 23rd and current prime minister of Canada. He has served as the prime minister of Canada since 2015 and as the leader of the Liberal Party since 2 ...

reportedly met Freeland for the first time at a book signing for ''Plutocrats'' in Toronto. The book convinced Trudeau to ask Freeland to join the

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. __TOC__ Active liberal parties This is a li ...

as a candidate. Trudeau subsequently became

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...

and appointed Freeland to his cabinet, initially as Minister of International Trade and eventually

Deputy Prime Minister A deputy prime minister or vice prime minister is, in some countries, a government minister who can take the position of acting prime minister when the prime minister is temporarily absent. The position is often likened to that of a vice president ...

and

Minister of Finance A finance minister is an executive or cabinet position in charge of one or more of government finances, economic policy and financial regulation. A finance minister's portfolio has a large variety of names around the world, such as "treasury", " ...

References

{{Reflist 2012 non-fiction books Books about economic inequality Books critical of capitalism Canadian non-fiction books Economics books Penguin Books books Allen Lane (imprint) books