Lede
Broke economists and rich bosses.
Nothing screams irony like the underpaid preaching to billionaires about “building wealth”.
What does not make sense
- People who can’t afford rent giving lectures on passive income.
- Workers calling themselves “team members” while scrubbing the boss’s golden toilet.
- Companies celebrating “efficiency” while plotting to replace the last human on the shop floor with a robot that doesn’t take lunch breaks.
- Management panels on “empowerment” hosted by people who’ve never met their cleaners.
Sense check / The numbers
- The top 1% now owns nearly half of global wealth (Credit Suisse).
- Average CEO pay in the UK rose 16% in 2024, while real wages for workers rose only 1% (ONS).
- Over 1.5 million UK jobs are at high risk of automation within ten years (PwC).
- In 2025, the median UK worker earns less than 0.1% of what a FTSE 100 CEO does annually.
- “Financial gurus” on TikTok are twice as likely to rent as to own a home (YouGov).
The sketch
Panel 1: A man in a wrinkled suit on YouTube: “Here’s how to build generational wealth.”
Panel 2: His laptop battery dies because he couldn’t pay the electricity bill.
Panel 3: Meanwhile, a robot in a boardroom says, “Efficiency achieved. Human redundancy: 100%.”
What to watch, not the show
- The cult of hustle replacing fair wages.
- Automation used not for progress, but for cutting payroll.
- Social media turning poverty into performance.
- The slow death of gratitude in corporate hierarchies.
The Hermit take
Wealth should be built, not hoarded.
And wisdom should come from those who live the struggle, not those selling it.
Keep or toss
Toss.
Keep the honesty of labour, toss the hypocrisy of the boardroom sermon.
Sources
Credit Suisse – Global Wealth Report 2024:
https://www.credit-suisse.com/about-us/en/reports-research/global-wealth-report.html
Office for National Statistics – Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings 2024:
https://www.ons.gov.uk
PwC – UK Economic Outlook on Automation:
https://www.pwc.co.uk/economic-services/ukeo.html
YouGov – Financial Influencer Statistics 2024: https://yougov.co.uk
