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The billionaire class in countries based on export of natural resources do not depend on a well-educated and civically competent citizenry. For example, in Russia only some 10 million people are needed to run the oil-and-gas economy, and the whole rest of the country has been termed "superfluous population" by some commentators. So, why would billionaires be interested in helping the average person out?

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What's the point of being one of the useful ten million if you don't have a bigger superfluous population to lord over.

Well, the presumption is that some billionaires, in the West at least, have a minor interest in maintaining basic standards of civilization. A tall order, no doubt, but one can hope. Bezos seems content to push his biased viewpoint via WaPo, but one hopes that others are more civic-minded.

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