Richard Boyd Barrett: Billionaires, Wars and the Cost of Living
Richard Boyd Barrett argues that the global and Irish cost of living crisis is driven by the greed of billionaires, warmongers and governments that enable them. He names Donald Trump and Elon Musk, cites growing billionaire wealth and Ireland's property speculation, and calls for wealth taxes and mass organising.
Richard Boyd Barrett links soaring private fortunes to worsening living costs. He highlights Elon Musk passing the trillion-dollar mark and the expansion of Donald Trump's personal wealth while ordinary people face inflation and economic hardship.
He points to Ireland's growing billionaire class - 11 billionaires holding large personal wealth - and explains how rent increases and land rezoning enrich property speculators. He describes a postal worker forced to live in overcrowded conditions because wages and social housing rules fail to keep up with costs.
Boyd Barrett criticises plans to increase arms expenditure across Europe, arguing money is being diverted from housing, health and childcare into the international arms industry and the pockets of the very wealthy.
He urges workers to organise, protest and demand wealth taxes and measures to stop land speculation. The speech frames redistribution and public mobilisation as necessary steps to address the cost of living crisis and protect ordinary households.
Claims on wealth and war
Richard Boyd Barrett links soaring private fortunes to worsening living costs. He highlights Elon Musk passing the trillion-dollar mark and the expansion of Donald Trump's personal wealth while ordinary people face inflation and economic hardship.
Impact on Ireland and housing
He points to Ireland's growing billionaire class - 11 billionaires holding large personal wealth - and explains how rent increases and land rezoning enrich property speculators. He describes a postal worker forced to live in overcrowded conditions because wages and social housing rules fail to keep up with costs.
Arms spending and public priorities
Boyd Barrett criticises plans to increase arms expenditure across Europe, arguing money is being diverted from housing, health and childcare into the international arms industry and the pockets of the very wealthy.
Calls for action
He urges workers to organise, protest and demand wealth taxes and measures to stop land speculation. The speech frames redistribution and public mobilisation as necessary steps to address the cost of living crisis and protect ordinary households.
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Transcript
The reason we have a cost of living crisis in this country and across the world for working people is because of the greed of billionaires and multi-millionaires and warmongers and the governments that back them. The personal fortunes of Donald Trump and his mate Elon Musk sum it all up. This year, while ordinary people across the world are crushed by the cost of living crisis, while some people are being bombed to bits by Musk and Trump's allies in Palestine or in Iran or in Lebanon, Musk's fortune has gone past one trillion. One trillion. Massively increasing. The world's first trillionaire. Donald Trump's fortunes shame on anybody who ever echoed a word of support or praise for this guy. Since he got into power, his personal fortune has tripled. From $2.3 billion to $4.6 billion. His personal wealth. Ripping off working class people in the United States with his mate Musk. The billionaires and the trillionaires. And then they start wars, they support a genocide, they bomb Iran, they bomb Lebanon and the cost of living goes up for working people in this country. Because of these billionaires and trillionaires. And we have our own versions of that in this country also benefiting from all of that. 11 billionaires, the number is increasing, in this country. Collison Brothers, Dennis O'Brien, Dorrance and all these people, 11 billionaires in this country have $46 billion in personal wealth. The richest 1% of Irish society have between them 35% of all the wealth. Just so you know how much that adds up to, that's about 400 billion euro. So these people are creaming it. The more they charge in rents, the more they speculate on property, affecting ordinary people affected by the housing crisis, the richer they get while ordinary people are crushed with the cost of living. And now I can't help, as I said yesterday, pointing to the fact that while all of this is happening, while ordinary people are being crushed with the cost of living, they want to double arms expenditure across Europe because Donald Trump has told them to do it. To the benefit of the international arms industry. So money that should go into housing, addressing the cost of living crisis, into health, into childcare is going to go into the pockets of the arms producers to make the billionaires and trillionaires even wealthier while ordinary people are bombed to bits, sent out to fight and crushed with the cost of living increases. And you see, and then you contrast that with, for example, the postal worker who comes in to me the other day. Averaging salary for a postal worker is €27,000, top of the scale, €41,000. And he's in a hot tenancy, one bedroom, but his four children have to come and stay with him so they sleep on camping beds. And because they pay so poorly, they haven't got enough postal workers, so he has to do a lot of overtime. But if he gets too much overtime, he's going to go over the threshold for social housing and then he won't even be able to afford a home because there's absolutely no way he could afford, on his own salary, private rents. But it is the multi-millionaires who are charging these rents that he can't afford. And the government, what are the government doing to assist or address that situation? Are they introducing wealth taxes? Are they stopping the speculation on land and property? We know they're rezoning land and making more property millionaires overnight. Not victimless crimes. All this wealth is not a victimless crime. It is coming out of the pockets of people in unaffordable rents and unaffordable house prices. That's where they're making their fortunes, crushing people and we have a government that is facilitating them in doing it, while ordinary working people are being absolutely crushed. Profits in this country have gone up 400% since I came into the doll. Workers' wages have gone up 400%. You must be joking. In real terms, workers are probably worse off because their pay increases haven't kept with inflation. So unless working people get organised and fight and take to the streets against the hikes in the cost of living, the unaffordable cost of housing and accommodation, and demand wealth taxes to redistribute the wealth, we're not going to address the cost of living crisis in this country. For more UN videos visit www.un.org