He is probably the actual billionaire in question, but doesn't want to highlight that point given the populist backlash against billionaires.

Popular, or "common", rather than populist.

I actually meant populist, meaning affiliated with populist ("of the ordinary people") political parties on both right and left.

Do all the non politically affiliated people who hate billionaires not count? Or why is the granularity here important? Your point is stronger the other way!

Populism is a "thin" political ideology that often gets layered on top of other political ideologies, both left- and right-wing. It simply means "policies that appeal to ordinary people" (vs. a rich and perceived corrupt elite). By definition, someone who hates billionaires simply because they are billionaires is a populist. They might hate other populists that have attached themselves to other political ideologies (and have different scapegoats or preferred policy prescriptions to rectify the inequality), but they are still a populist.

> By definition, someone who hates billionaires simply because they are billionaires is a populist.

You've ascribed to them an ideology they don't hold. They don't hold that view "simply because they are billionaires".

Meaning is derived from real usage, not from dictionaries. Descriptivism has won. And in the real world, it's simply used as a cheap shot to claim that certain policies or thoughts are only for the winning of votes rather than well thought out or other "ideology" based.

Funny that it use to be the millionaires everyone hated. I guess there are too many millionaires these days and vilifying them means turning yourself or someone you know into the villain. That’s probably a little too uncomfortable.

Inflation has made so many "millionaires" (8% of US households), and at the same rendered it a meaningless title - a salaried worker who paid off their 30 year mortgage and has a little in their 401k is quite likely to cross the million net worth threshold.

A million is hardly buying mansions, yachts, and champagne-filled swimming pools in the current economy

Well, I would reframe it. A comfortable retirement nest egg is now over a million in most parts of the US, and the people who used to rail against millionaires were never intending to argue that people shouldn’t be allowed to enjoy a comfortable retirement.