Sad For The Sub: How Much Do Billionaires Cost Us?
Just how much does our cultural worship of extreme wealth and power really cost us all?
If I had a dollar for every editorial or social media post passionately decrying anyone who criticized the wealthy tourists on the submarine which catastrophically failed on an exploratory dive to the Titanic this past Sunday —
I’d be rich!
Maybe then somebody other than my immediate family would care if I lived or died.
I didn’t say “I don’t feel sorry for those foolish rich tourists” in public or in private.
But when the news came out about the lost Titan submarine, I asked myself if I was any more sorry for them than I would be for others who had a misadventure on an ill-conceived professionally-guided wilderness journey. My answer to this question was “no.”
Many others, however, expressed social media frustration that so much media attention was paid to the Titan disaster and so little to hundreds of refugees drowning off the coast of Spain’s Canary Islands.
After three or four days of outrage, CNN and other news outlets have begun to document the plight of these refugees and rescue efforts.
A publication I worked for years ago, the Los Angeles Times, (a non-Union paper then, a “Guild” paper now) put out this message about the millions of social media comments expressing schadenfreude at the miserable and sad implosion of the Titan submersible.
At the same time, the newspaper has been laying off many employees, often over Zoom or via text messages.
Conservative pundit Matt Walsh offered the following interpretation of public reaction to the deployment of massive U.S. and Canadian military and coast guard resources to rescue the Titan and its occupants.
How Much Does Wealth Worship Cost Us?
The 24–7 nonstop media coverage and obsessive concern for the Titan sub and the fate of its passengers is a media phenomenon, not a real-world phenomenon: with one exception — massive government and public resources were extended to try to rescue the sub and its occupants. Meanwhile, European ship captains have been prosecuted for “illegally” helping to save refugees from drowning.
You heard that right, and it has been going on since 2019. But of course, for someone like me to think, “Those Titan tourists have more money than sense,” well — that makes me a “criminal,” right? Just like those German women who pay for their own ship and fuel to rescue desperate, drowning North African refugees.
A large number of my upper-middle-class social media acquaintances have problems with people saying that the billionaires on the Titan sub were foolhardy. They strongly object to some who were cheering at their demise.
I don’t think that questioning the entire process of the Titan sub, start to finish, makes anyone a “callous” or “immoral” or “bad” person. Relatives have suggested that Pakistani billionaire Shahzada Dawood’s son, age 19, was afraid to go on the sub and did so only to please his father.
This is sad and painful to hear: most people understand that many children will do anything to please their parents. 19-year-old Suleman Dawood will not have a chance to live out a full life because of the Titan sub tragedy.
And I wonder — why is it so difficult for so many upper-middle-class people to understand that there are 8 billion of us and this privilege problem is what causes hundreds of 19-year-olds and thousands of children to lose their lives each day: in service of billionaires like Shahzada Dawood and the other billionaire on the sub, Hamish Harding.
Dawood’s family are wealthy individuals from Karachi, and their business reportedly involves “agriculture, energy, and communications.” I have worked with Pakistan-based businesses that wanted to provide clean water in Karachi and other larger cities. The people there have not had clean water for decades. They must pay for bottled and filtered water, which itself, may not be sanitary or clean. According to the National Institutes of Health, almost 100,000 Pakistani children die each year due to lack of clean water, among them over 50,000 children under age 5.
Hamish Harding, age 58, the other ultra-high-net-worth (UHNW) individual on the Titan sub, reportedly made his billions from “aviation” as well as real estate — and told Business Aviation Magazine last year that he’d made his initial multi-millions from “banking software.” I know a few other individuals who also made a lot of money from early-generation financial software. Harding considered himself an “Explorer” and “Adventurer,” and maintained an active social media presence documenting his journeys to extreme locations like the Marianas Trench and, last year, into space via a Blue Origin flight.
So, when we were young, we envisioned space exploration as an exciting Star Trek-style journey to distant, exotic planets.
Not tourist flights to the limit of the atmosphere.
When we were young, we pictured mysterious journeys to the bottom of the sea to discover previously unknown creatures and sights.
Not tourist trips costing more than most humans could ever pay for a house in which they would live a lifetime.
It isn’t that we regular people are unsympathetic to the Titan travelers who have lost their lives in a tragic undersea accident.
It’s that we believe it’s time that just a small share of the concern, resources, and attention paid to this group be devoted instead, to the well-being and welfare of the larger group of 8 billion of us.
And beyond that, to the well-being and welfare of the planet we live on. To the hopes and dreams of 8 billion humans and the healthy, thriving lives of the animals, plants, and even insects and microbes — that make up the seen and unseen world in which we live.
I think about the life of the guy that owned the Titan sub and how he was hustling for $250,000 tickets, even offering discounts a few days before the ill-fated sub trip.
According to NOAA, less than 10% of the world’s ocean floor has been mapped using modern methods. Yet there wasn’t just one company devoted to taking rich people down to see the remains of the Titanic rather than exploring other ocean areas. Overall, National Geographic and others have reported that exploring the Titanic has become a billion-dollar industry.
There’s that billion-dollar figure again.
Who is a scientist? Who becomes an “explorer?” Studies show that worldwide, only the wealthiest young people end up being able to pursue careers in science. Those with less money lack the funds to do multiple unpaid internships. The majority of less-wealthy aspiring scientists are directed away from their disciplines in high school or college.
And we can see from the sad story of the Titan sub, the kinds of choices, priorities, and decisions are important to the very wealthiest among us as well as those whose businesses and lives are devoted to serving them.
Yes, that does make me sad. And no, I have no problem with people calling me “classless” because that’s the tragedy I see about this horrific sub accident.
Waste of rescue effort. Waste of four days of nonstop media attention. Waste of engineering and tech expertise.
Just a waste. And a crying shame.
Brilliant summary Amy!
I also typed in a comment that disappeared, so I'll summarize:
- I don't feel at all bad that these idiots died. They aren't victims, though it is tragic in the Greek or Shakespearean sense. Hubris crushed them as much as depth.
- Billionaire worship, and the process that allows billionaires to exist at all, is mining the biosphere to bedrock. What happened to that sub is the fate the billionaires will lead every living thing big enough to see.