Sociology

Workers Don't Need Billionaires, But Billionaires Need Workers

Workers and non-billionaires build and sustain the economy. Billionaires usually gain wealth after success and rarely own entire companies. The workforce, not extreme wealth, is the true foundation of economic activity.

T Jackson

11 Mar 2026 — 5 min read

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Abstract

There’s a claim you might have encountered: billionaires create jobs, which makes their presence necessary. But when you look closer, it doesn't hold up. The truth is the opposite: workers are the ones keeping billionaires afloat, not the other way around.

First, let's be clear about who we're actually talking about. There's a huge difference between a millionaire and a billionaire. A millionaire can be a dentist who owns their own practice, a successful contractor, or a teacher who made wise investments over time. If you spent $1,000 each day, you would use a million in less than 3 years and a billion in nearly 3,000 years, specifically 2,740 years.

Billionaires Rarely Own the Companies Outright That Employ Thousands and Thousands

The halo effect about billionaires is that they own most of the companies that generate their wealth. Billionaires rarely own the companies that employ thousands of people. Sure, a few do, but it's not common. So, the point still stands. Billionaires usually hold a small portion of their wealth in stock. Elon Musk, often cited as a "job creator," owns around 20% of Tesla. Jeff Bezos owns around 10% of Amazon. While investors, pension funds, and ordinary people with retirement accounts own the majority. Musk has enormous influence, yes, but they don't own Tesla the way a small business owner owns their shop.

Bad humor: Since he has an issue with pronouns -- notice what I did above?

This matters because it changes the story of who's actually responsible for those jobs. The employees, the managers, the engineers, the factory workers, they're the ones showing up every day to build the cars. The stock ownership determines who collects the profits.

Most Jobs Come from Small Businesses, Not Billionaires

A key fact often missed in debates, especially online, is this: small and medium-sized businesses create most jobs in America. The U.S. Small Business Administration reports that small businesses make up about 46.4% of private-sector jobs. They also contribute about 44% to GDP and have created about 63% of new jobs since 1995. Middle-class entrepreneurs and millionaires usually build and run these businesses. Most are middle-class people, not those with ten-figure net worths.

If billionaires disappeared tomorrow, the local restaurant, the family-owned hardware store, and the regional construction company would still be open. The economy doesn't run on billionaires. It runs on the countless workers and business owners operating at every level below them.

Billionaires Came After the Success, Not Before It

Almost all the world's biggest companies weren't founded by billionaires. Their founders became billionaires after the companies succeeded. Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak started Apple in a garage in 1976. Bill Gates dropped out of college to build Microsoft in 1975. Sam Walton opened his first Walmart store with a small loan in 1962. Elon Musk sold a software company before buying his way into Tesla in 2004.

None of these people was a billionaire when they created what made them famous. The wealth came from success; it wasn't the starting ingredient. You don't need a billionaire to start a company. You need an idea, hard work, and, most of all, a team of capable people willing to build something together.

If Billionaires Leave, Their Assets Stay

Some people argue that if we tax billionaires too much or change policies they dislike, they might move away and take jobs with them. But this argument doesn't hold up either. When a billionaire moves to a new country, it can be costly and slow. Packing up factories, offices, and customer bases is often hard, or even impossible. The physical assets stay. The employees stay. The customers stay. Business remains active.

What moves is the individual and their personal wealth. That's a real loss, but it's not the economic catastrophe it's often made out to be. Companies have faced CEO resignations, ownership changes, and big restructurings many times. They have not survived but thrived through these challenges.

Workers Are the Foundation

Billionaires depend on workers far more than workers depend on billionaires. Think about what a billionaire needs to function in daily life. They need doctors to stay healthy. Lawyers protect their interests. Mechanics maintain their vehicles. Cooks prepare their meals. Pilots fly their planes. Security teams keep them safe. Every single one of those people is a worker.

Now scale that up to their businesses. A company like Amazon doesn't run because Jeff Bezos shows up and packs boxes. It runs thanks to the hard work of many people. Every day, warehouse workers, drivers, software engineers, and customer service reps do their jobs. Remove Bezos from the equation, and Amazon would find a replacement. Remove the workers, and there is no Amazon.

The Bottom Line

None of this means billionaires are evil or that they shouldn't exist. The argument is simpler than that: they aren't necessary. The jobs that exist in this country aren't there because billionaires decided to be generous. They exist because workers showed up, built things, and kept them running. Small business owners, entrepreneurs, and workers at all income levels hold the economy together.

Billionaires are the result of a successful economic system, not its cause. The sooner we are honest about this, the clearer we can see which policies truly aid working people and which ones sound good in speeches.

For you bootlickers, I will clarify this one more time: I do not have a problem with the existence of billionaires; I said, with logic, "they're not needed.”

Reference

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