Nowadays, in a world of global capitalism, the 1 percent are becoming more wealthy. Their investments seem to only go up and the taxes they pay appear only to go down. Kenneth Eisold, a psychoanalyst who works with businesses, and both the 1 percent, and those who run their businesses writes as follows:
The top decile always encompasses two very different worlds: “the 9 percent,” in which income from labor clearly predominates, and “the 1 percent,” in which income from capital becomes progressively more important.Thomas Piketty
Mr Eisold, in a journal paper (Int J Appl Psychoanal Studies. 2020;17:65–76. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/aps © 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd), captures the psychological position of the 9 percent in the vignette below:
"A client of mine, Alan, a top executive of a major corporation, one of a handful that dominates its industry, keeps a sheet of paper in the top drawer of his desk, which he updates regularly. It lists the jobs at his level for which he would be eligible were he to be fired. His current job does not seem to be endangered as he has succeeded so far in satisfying his CEO and the company's Board—and the company is doing well. Nor is he beleaguered with excessive self-doubt about his competence. He attended a top Ivy League university and had a successful career in his industry before being recruited to his current job, and he appears to have the respect of those who report to him. But I under- stand Alan's need for the list. It is a defense, a defense against a real danger I have come to understand he lives with daily.
A new class, often referred to as a “meritocracy,” has arisen to manage the businesses, financial institutions, government agencies and think tanks that protect and enlarge the sway of the “one percent” that constitute the oligarchy, those at the top of our society enjoying a disproportionate share of our wealth. Working with those “nine percent,” whose wealth accumulates from compensation rather than invest- ment, allows us to see the volatility and insecurity that characterize their work lives, as the reward of wealth substi- tutes for stability and satisfaction from work they once more traditionally enjoyed. This paper gives examples from their work experience, going on to explore some of the con- sequences for the organizations in which they work as well as for society as a whole.
The paramount measure of success today in financialized capitalism has become a company's stock price. Increasing, “shareholder value,” as it is somewhat euphemistically called, now dominates profitability, growth, market share, and, certainly, stability and safety as marks of corporate success. But for executives that is the one thing over which they have the least control. They can work with reasonable effectiveness to assess and align employees, they can try to ensure that the required resources are available, that new products and services are in the pipeline and that the workplace is reasonably safe, but they cannot control the perceptions or judgments of investors, though they are constantly pressured to do so as they are being judged by the movements of financial markets as investors try to pick future winners. As Richard Sennett put it a few years ago: “Enormous pressure [is] put on companies to look beautiful in the eyes of the passing voyeur [the short-term investor].” (Sennett, 2006, p. 40)
As the financial markets gyrate over the coming years I imagine the list in the desks of the nine percent will undergo a ferocious and panicky rewriting. What happens when investors rush for the doors at Tesla (other people make cars too), or Apple (other people make phones), or Nvidia (other people make chips). Most likely, the anxiety band aid in the draw, the list of jobs and self-help mantras, may suddenly become obsolete. As for the 91 percent, they are unlikely to have a desk of their own, or even the luxury of creating such lists.