Patton Oswalt warns of a new billionaire class that takes and gives nothing back

On Books That Changed My Life, Patton Oswalt tied Ruby Cowing’s fiction to his fears about AI, power and a new class of ultra-wealthy leaders. He argued the people shaping the future now operate with a blunt ethos: take from the world, return nothing, and call that strength.

Why it matters: - Patton Oswalt used a literary interview to frame a broader warning about AI-era power and the people shaping it. - Oswalt says the new ultra-wealthy class is not just rich, but openly extractive in a way that affects work, creativity and public life. - His comments connect pop culture, fiction and tech power into a blunt critique of where society is headed.

What happened: - On the latest episode of Books That Changed My Life, host Chris "Bulldog" Collins spoke with actor and comedian Patton Oswalt about Ruby Cowing’s short story collection This Paradise. - The conversation expanded into Oswalt’s views on a new class of "billionaire, trillionaire" oligarchs and their influence. - Oswalt’s new stand-up special, Tea and Scotch, is currently on YouTube. - Oswalt discovered This Paradise through a Hingston & Olsen short story advent calendar. - A story titled "Odon Till" led Oswalt to seek out Cowing’s other work and then the Boiler House Press collection. - Oswalt says he has been evangelizing for the book by buying copies and giving them away.

The details: - Oswalt says the book pulled him back to reading after a period when he was, in his words, "a slave to the brain rot and the slop and the swiping all night, all day." - Oswalt says his interest in Cowing’s work centers on power and creativity in the AI era. - He describes "a new power announcing itself as power that does not care" and contrasts it with older robber barons who funded hospitals and libraries. - Oswalt calls the new elite "perfectly happy sociopaths" who "get 10 hours of sleep at night" and "don't have stomach ulcers." - He says the new ethos is: "I'm taking stuff out of the world and giving nothing back — that's how strong I am." - Oswalt highlighted three stories from This Paradise during the interview. - "The Ground Is Considerably Distorted" follows a news event as texts, social media and pundits increasingly obscure it. - "Eliminate Toxins and Increase Blood Flow" is a four-page story set in a massage parlor that ends in a gruesome, darkly comic murder. - "Flamingo Land" depicts a near-future dystopia where British families "earn" social welfare by keeping their weights aligned with "the formula." - The title story, "This Paradise," follows a wealthy British family of climate refugees and ends with the realization that they are not necessarily in charge anymore. - At a Q&A Oswalt attended about a year ago, a vice president from "one of the big AI companies, maybe the biggest one" was asked what people should do about AI replacing jobs. - The executive answered: "If it was me, I'd buy a park. People are going to want to go to parks." - Oswalt called that response, "That's the funniest answer I've ever heard. Buy nature."

Between the lines: - Oswalt is not just reacting to AI as a technology shift. He is using it to critique how wealth, leisure and access may separate the powerful from everyone else. - His reading of Cowing’s fiction suggests contemporary satire is helping him describe a real-world political mood that feels more extreme than old-school corporate excess. - The park comment lands as a symbol of scarcity thinking. Even public nature becomes something to own when elites treat basic life as a private asset.

What's next: - The full Books That Changed My Life episode is available now. - Oswalt’s Tea and Scotch special remains on YouTube for viewers who want the broader context of his current material. - Oswalt is likely to keep using interviews and stand-up to connect cultural criticism with his concerns about AI and concentrated wealth.

The bottom line: - Oswalt’s central claim is simple: a new class of power is no longer pretending to give back. - In his view, that shift is now visible in both tech culture and the stories people are reading.