Rupert sees wealth gap fuelling social unrest
Johann Rupert, founder and chairman of Cie. Financiere Richemont SA, speaks with delegates during the Business of Luxury summit in Monaco, on Monday, June 8, 2015. The Monaco Business of Luxury summit runs from June 8-9. Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg *** Local Caption *** Johann Rupert Johann Rupert, founder and chairman of Cie. Financiere Richemont SA, speaks with delegates during the Business of Luxury summit in Monaco, on Monday, June 8, 2015. The Monaco Business of Luxury summit runs from June 8-9. Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg *** Local Caption *** Johann Rupert
JOHANN Rupert, the South African who has made billions peddling Cartier jewellery and Chloe fashion, said yesterday that tensions between the rich and poor was set to escalate as robots and artificial intelligence fuelled mass unemployment.
“We cannot have 0.1 percent of 0.1 percent taking all the spoils,” said Rupert, who has a fortune worth $7.5 billion (R94bn), according to data compiled by Bloomberg. “It’s unfair and it is not sustainable.”
The founder and chairman of Richemont, whose 20 brands also include Montblanc, said he expected advances in technology to lead to job losses after having read books on the subject recently. Conflicts between social classes would make selling luxury goods more tricky as the rich would want to conceal their wealth, Rupert said yesterday at the Financial Times Business of Luxury Summit in Monaco.
“How is society going to cope with structural unemployment and the envy, hatred and the social warfare?” he said. “We are destroying the middle classes at this stage and it will affect us. It’s unfair. So that’s what keeps me awake at night.” – Bloomberg