Rule of and by the by Law

Last week, for some inexplicable reason that I didn’t question, I was upgraded to the first class Emirates lounge in Dubai.

More of everything, is all you could describe it as. Except people.

I got chatting to some American dude at the pig trough.

Super wealthy, he was connecting through Dubai on his way to somewhere or other to meet his own jet.

I guided the conversation towards his stated desires regarding the accumulation of more wealth, which he assured me he wanted to do, through his hedge fundy ways.

Hedge funds, by the way, are a pot of committed funds that can be exploited in almost any way the managers see fit. Why ‘hedge’ is anyone’s guess, however I am sure that once, a long time back, that they did have something to do with hedging.

My hedge fund friend already has pretty much all he could ever want; a few houses around the planet, a yacht, a jet, four ex and current wives, a few children here and there, a few sports cars, and unlimited entertainment expenses.

What he really desires, and this is my effort at paraphrasing his contorted efforts at describing his aspirations, is freedom from the rule of law.

Simply stated, he feels that his money should somehow buy him the freedom from the constraints of law that bind all of us. He didn’t state it thus, but it is what he meant.

You can see this desire in action in many non-first world countries. China, for example, where the party elite rule by law, but they themselves clearly are not as subject to the rule of law as their minions.

So here’s another prediction; as the Gini index shoots up in the West (because a minority is getting super wealthy) I expect these wealthy minorities to turn their efforts towards freeing themselves from the rule of law.

This goal will be best attained through some sort of control of the political process. My guess is that this process has well and truly started. But it has a long way to go.