Billionaire warns social unrest to escalate as robots & AI fuel mass unemployment...
Billionaire Cartier Owner Sees Wealth Gap Fueling Social
Unrest
by Thomas Mulier and Andrew Roberts
June 8, 2015 — 5:39 AM PDT
Johann Rupert, the South African who has made billions
peddling Cartier jewelry and Chloe fashion, said tension between the rich and
poor is set to escalate as robots and artificial intelligence fuel mass
unemployment.
“We cannot have 0.1 percent of 0.1 percent taking all the
spoils,” said Rupert, who has a fortune worth $7.5 billion, according to data
compiled by Bloomberg. “It’s unfair and it is not sustainable.”
The founder and chairman of Richemont, whose 20 brands
also include Vacheron Constantin and Montblanc, said he expects advances in
technology to lead to job losses after having read books on the subject
recently. Conflicts between social classes will make selling luxury goods more
tricky as the rich will want to conceal their wealth, Rupert said in a speech
Monday at the Financial Times Business of Luxury Summit in Monaco.
“How is society going to cope with structural
unemployment and the envy, hatred and the social warfare?” he said. “We are
destroying the middle classes at this stage and it will affect us. It’s unfair.
So that’s what keeps me awake at night.”
Rupert, a university dropout whose father made a fortune
setting up Rembrandt Tobacco Corp. and selling it off, has in the past made
other social critiques. Nicknamed ‘Rupert the Bear’ for his pessimistic views
on the economy, the 65-year-old refers to himself as a “reformed prostitute,”
having spent a decade as an investment banker. He said in 2008 that the
collateral damage from the financial crisis was yet to come.
“We’re in for a huge change in society,” he said Monday.
“Get used to it. And be prepared.”
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