Here you can read all about Philip Green.
He is compared to Donald Trump. His associates call him reliable. He pumps money out of companies and then lets them be bankrupted by their pension obligations. His wife runs one of his companies and collects dividends from it, while living in Monaco and paying no taxes.
Unlike Trump, Green does not seem to have political ambitions. Yet. He’s younger than The Donald. Unlike American reporters, the British press seems to have had enough of Green. (See the above hotlink. It’s a fun read.)
I have a chaos-theory explanation for how the Trumps and Greens of the world get where they are. It’s based on a metaphor: a fountain. There used to be a fountain in the Eton Centre in Toronto, Canada – this when Eaton’s was a successful company and the Hudson’s Bay Company was also Canadian-owned. The fountain is no longer there. I used to watch the chaos of upward-thrown water.
There was always a droplet at the top of the pile, with some close friends around it. Two things about this metaphor:
- There is not much special about the droplet at the top. It got there as part of a chaotic process, partly by being next its neighbouring droplets earlier.
- Being at the top can be unstable.
I will end with a law’s list quote, which I may have given before. It’s Spider-man’s law:
With great power comes great responsibility.
and Bennett’s corollary:
Do not give power to irresponsible, or to idiotic, individuals. Power includes money, influence, and political office.
Have a nice day.