After a failed Presidential Campaign, Bernie Sanders became a millionaire due to a very lucrative book deal[1]. Overnight, he dropped the millionaire bit from his stump speech, converting what used to be a screed against "Millionaires and Billionaires" to just "Billionaires"[2].
His base didn't seem to notice, and slid right into the modified "billionaires are evil" mantra. The hypocrisy is amazing to see.
While the formal definition of a millionaire or billionaire is based on net worth and assets, I think the issue is likely "philosophical" billionaires.
It's a fundamentally different lifestyle, culture, and philosophy.
We can tell the difference between "Inherited Grandpa's house in Los Angeles, net worth $1.4M, hobbies include PC gaming and woodworking" from "Owns the lion's share of a mining conglomerate, net worth $680M, hobbies include holding Congress hostage to preserve his future revenue streams."
The resurgence of this screed as a political movement was a creation owed to Bernie Sanders, without any doubt. He made is fashionable.
At the time, the "millionaires and billionaires" thing went global, and subsequently, when he dropped billionaires from his screed, so did the rest of the world.
So much of global political trends follow the US. See the various Trumpesque figures that popped up seemingly in every country, and note that despite the country of origin, you will only hear about evil billionaires these days.
His base didn't seem to notice, and slid right into the modified "billionaires are evil" mantra. The hypocrisy is amazing to see.
[1] https://www.forbes.com/sites/chasewithorn/2019/04/12/how-ber...
[2] https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/13/bernie-sanders-says-milliona...