I stumbled across a bunch of videos about super yachts and conversion expedition yachts. The new yacht record is over 600 feet.
The demand for a bigger and bigger yachts ever more elaborate with more and more “toys” such as submarines to go along with them is high. There are an amazing number of the things.
Meanwhile, the rest of us worry about inflation and if there will be enough food and fuel.
That kind of disparity between the 1% and the rest is not success, it is greed. You can’t defend it. Making that much money is done by paying the workers too little or charging too much.
In the case of the Russian oligarchs, they have in effect individual license to extract a tax on the natural resources of the country. All of them deal in extractive industries like oil or gas. They were just given a valuable income stream in exchange for their cooperation in backing the national leadership and channeling funds to whomever the leadership directs.
Its sort of like a patent of nobility. An aristocrat receives a grant of land from the monarch, in exchange for his support.