Don't call Howard Schultz a billionaire. He's a 'person of means'

Howard Schultz is worth around $3.4bn. While one might think that would make the former Starbucks CEO and would-be presidential candidate a “billionaire”, he would prefer you didn’t use that term. You see, while billionaire may seem like a simple descriptor, it is actually a disgusting slur.

Schultz enlightened us as to the problematic nature of the b-word at a book event in New York last Monday. When asked by New York Times columnist Andrew Ross Sorkin whether he thought billionaires had become too powerful in American life, the coffee magnate complained that “the moniker billionaire now has become the catchphrase”. Rather than using a word like billionaire to describe a person with billions of dollars, Schultz suggested it may be better to use expressions like “people of means” or “people of wealth”.

Poor Schultz. He was just trying to help us all out; generously digging into his rich vocabulary and spreading the semantic wealth. However, after footage of the interview went viral this week, the businessman has been mercilessly mocked. People of mean spirit have been suggesting their own alternatives to billionaire such as “robber barons”, “cash vampires”, and various other phrases that are probably too rude to repeat.

While Schultz’s clumsy attempt to rebrand the term billionaire is amusing, it’s also instructive. You see, what he unsuccessfully tried to do in that interview is what the super-rich have successfully been doing for a very long time: justifying their unjustifiable fortunes by deploying strategic euphemisms. Spinning inequality with disingenuous synonyms. You could call it “wealth-washing”.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/feb/06/dont-call-howard-schultz-billionaire-wealth-washing