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Ok so they are not necessary but somewhat related.
Both have political power and lots of money but a cartel is a group and oligarch is a person?
An oligarch is a person who has money and power. It is usually used when describing certain Russian businessmen, because they are *very* wealthy and they are usually able to do what they want in the country as long as they don’t cross the government in some way.
A cartel is a *group* of people or businesses of some kind that is trying to control high prices of whatever products they make or service.
Oligarchs are just really rich people with a shit ton of influence on politics in their nation. They waive their money and influence around to pressure politicians into passing laws that are beneficial to their business ventures. Their actions aren’t always legal, but tend to “dance that line”. They also generally tend to not be violent (at least in comparison to a cartel) and if they are, they manage to cover that up pretty successfully.
(The US has oligarch but we refuse to call them that…Musk. Bezos. The Bushes. The Clintons. The Kennedys. Rupert Murdoch. Michael Bloomberg. The kingpins of big pharma, Etc.)
Cartels—while they have influence—are groups of business people who work together—generally by violent means—to control the supply of a good or service—also generally very illegal goods and services. They flaunt their violence as a badge of honor and a weapon.
Elon Musk and Koch are American oligarchs. They control vast sectors of the economy, hold massive leverage over the government, and are the true power of the system. Without the Russian oligarchs, Putin falls. Without the American Oligarchs, we retake our public sphere to be representative of the people and not just the affluent.
Oligarchy is when controlling power is concentrated in the hands of a few people or groups. An oligarch is one of those people or the leader of one of those groups.
They are ultimately not beholden to shareholders or voters.
Many folks here don’t distinguish powerful western billionaires from oligarchs. But the difference is significant:
– Oligarchs tend to explicitly take government positions
– Western billionaires avoid taxes, oligarchs don’t – they rather receive them.
While we at it … Are oligarch and tycoon synonyms?
Jeff Bezos would be an oligarch if he was Russian. It’s basically a rich person who has political influence.
An oligarch is a (usually) rich person with political power, a member of an oligarchy.
Monarchy = rule by one
Oligarchy = rule by the few
Patriarchy = rule by men
Matriarch = rule by women
Tetrarchy = rule by four
Anarchy = rule by nobody
I don’t think it’s quite the same as a cartel, as cartels are mostly about manipulating markets and you don’t necessarily need political power for that.
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