Rich men rule the world

As long as I have a new job, the first thing I do is call my dad. And the first thing he asks me is: How much do they pay you? The man’s obsession with money and pennies is a tradition in the Drummond family. But his zealous interest in the size of my payment is for a very good reason: money runs the world, after all, both did you have someone or not. So, Mr. Drummond figures, you might as well try to do as much as you can.

My inherited pathologies aside, WIRED’s interest in money is as obvious as it is huge: We cover an industry awash in trillions of dollars, and that industry is so big that it shapes everything we all do in life. . But what exactly is that money? How did they handle it? And what does this mean for the rest of us? To find out, we sent some money-eyed WIRED reporters to far-flung places: From the United Arab Emirates to Denmark to Washington, D.C., to sprawling Florida, we spread far and wide to bring you some unique WIRED stories which document wealth and power. across the planet.

Finally, a group of editors sat down to evaluate our line. And we noticed something, as we browsed through the drafts and infographics. Where in the world would we send a reporter, what corner of the technological landscape would we cover, the holders of all that money? Men. All of them. Each. Single. One. Bill Gates, who sat down with Steven Levy to talk about his new memoir (stay tuned), has enjoyed 19 of the last 30 years at the top of the list of the world’s richest people. Of the 30-odd crypto investors in Trump’s inner circle, all of them are – wait for it – guys. Even the young men knocking door to door in the Sunshine State, shilling solar panels in a desperate attempt to become millionaires by 30, are, well, men.

So let me be the first to point it out: There’s more testosterone in this issue than the last decade of People’s Sexiest Man Alive editions combined. In part, it is a reality brought by the circumstances: 87 percent of the billionaires in the world are men, and women continue to be much, scandalously surpassed in executive positions in the technology industry. None of this even begins to account for racial diversity, which paints an even bleaker picture. And that’s likely to continue in the short term, as tech giants like Meta and Google wind down their DEI investments. Meanwhile, the online manosphere— again encouraged by President Trump and his Prime Buddy Musk — continues to metastasize in scope and influence.

But I will also take ownership. At WIRED, it’s our failure of editorial foresight and imagination to have seen the obvious—the blatant and persistent masculinity, page after page—only at the last minute. Not to have, earlier in our assignment process, decided to interrogate the rampant and fractured gender dynamics of wealth accumulation, corporate influence, power. All those who always, infuriatingly, belong almost exclusively to people with pain, with commanding baritones in the meeting room, and with a head of centuries.

Make no mistake: You’ll love this issue, both in print and online. We hope you’ll learn a thing or two about how the big bucks in technology are amassed and spent, and people—men—are amassing and spending. But from a woman in charge to all the guys, including those featured in our pages: It might be a rich man’s world for now, but trust me, women like money too. And we’re coming to get some of yours.

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