In Defence of Marxism

Every year, Forbes magazine publishes its Richest Americans list. It's followed by The World's Billionaires List, Women Billionaires List, Celebrity 100 List and The Sunday Times Rich List, which lists the 1,000 wealthiest people in Britain.

Needless to say, we are all in favour of rich lists: The more we know about the wealthy, who really run society, the better. But now we have an entirely new set of fat cats to study. A new Russian magazine called Snob has recently been launched. Andrei Shmarov, who will run Snob, told Reuters:

"It's for people who are successful and those who want to be successful." Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, the metals magnate with an estimated net worth of more than $20 billion, plans to pour $150 million into Snob, which will comprise a magazine, Web site and TV station.

In capitalist Russia, snob is now considered a compliment. "Snob, to us, means a person who is a 'self-made man' - a person who has gained a right to snobbishness," Mr. Schmarov said.