“It used to be that people would get rich enough to affect their own nation… .” When? Where? There has never been a world where borders are a real thing that insulates one state from another (I assume you mean state, “nation” as the imaginary common identity makes even less sense). This is not a matter of a few individuals making this system function poorly, the purpose of this system is to generate wealth for a privileged few.

European imperialism/settler-colonialism and the capitalism that emerged through it has always functioned this way. It was funded by individuals with systemic privilege that afforded exceptional wealth and was realized through the exploitation of poor Europeans disadvantaged in those societies and the genocide of indigenous peoples all over the world.Thousands and thousands of nations were targeted for genocide by people who would never even step foot on the same continent as them. Wealth concentration may have improved the conditions for settlers in some places, but that wasn’t for the betterment of the state or nation or whatever you have imagined here. Workers and farmers with relatively high material security and wealth were allowed that level of power because it maintained a racialized and gendered hierarchy that was necessary to effectively carry out the violent extraction of wealth for the most privileged in society. That was in no way universal; there hasn’t been centuries of civil recognition and labour rights movements because most people flourished under this system.

There was no break in how this society was organised that allowed these exceptionally naughty billionaires to exist, that amount of wealth concentration is not new and is only possible through a system that devalues life.

I wonder if anyone else has made the observation that a global revolution is necessary to prevent capitalism from killing as much as it desires… 🤔