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Among countless US citizens, the economic climate over the recent five-year span has been tough. Expenses have escalated while salaries remains unchanged. Elevated mortgage rates have made homeownership a bleak prospect. The unemployment rate has been gradually increasing.

The majority of individuals have stated they're postponing major life decisions, including starting a family or moving to new employment, because of financial volatility. But for a select few of people, the last five years couldn't have been more successful.

The Billionaire Boom

The assets of the world's billionaires grew 54% in 2020, at the peak of the pandemic. And even throughout all the economic instability, the stock market has only persisted in expanding. This growth has primarily advantaged just a tiny percentage of Americans: 10% of the population controls 93% of stock market wealth.

Despite the imbalance as this distribution seems, it's the economic framework working as it is presently configured.

"Affluent individuals have bought their jets, they've bought their multiple houses and mansions, but now they're securing senators and media outlets," explained economic inequality analyst Chuck Collins. "We're now stepping into this other chapter of maximum resource removal where the wealthy are exploiting the system of inequality."

Mapping Economic Classes

To help others comprehend what exactly it means to be "rich" in the US, Collins borrows a concept from journalist Robert Frank who, in a 2007 book on the rich, imagined the different levels of wealth as "Affluencia" villages: Affluent Town, Lower Richistan, Middle Richistan, Upper Richistan and Billionaireville.

To contemporize the concept, Collins categorizes these "economic communities" based on income levels:

• At the base level, Affluent Town, are the 10 million Americans who have a family earnings of at least $110,000 and an net worth of over $1.5m.
• The villages get more restricted as wealth goes up: Lower Richistan has 2.6 million households who have wealth between $6m and $13m.
• Middle Richistan has 1.3 million households who have assets worth an average of $37m.
• Upper Richistan, made up of 130,000 Americans (roughly the size of a small city) has between $60m to $1bn in wealth.

In total, the residents of these villages make up the top 10% of the wealth income distribution, about 14 million Americans altogether, though their lifestyles vary dramatically.

"You could be in Lower Richistan, and you're still traveling in the coach section of a commercial plane," Collins said. "Whereas in Upper Richistan, you're using a private jet. That's a really distinct lifestyle. You fly private, you have no stakes in the commercial aviation system. You don't care if the whole system fails – you're set."

Ultra-Wealth Impact

The peak in "Richistan" is Billionaireville, which is made up of about 800 American billionaires who are some of the world's richest. The influence that this group has greatly exceeds those who are simply well-off, let alone the ordinary person who doesn't inhabit "Richistan" at all.

But Collins thinks the political catchphrase "end extreme wealth" doesn't capture the real problem and has a "hint of elimination" to it.

"It's the separation between personal actions and a framework of policies," Collins commented. "We should be focused on an economic system that channels so much wealth upward to the billionaires."

The Four Pillars of Billionaire Wealth

To understand how wealth at the billionaire level works, Collins separates it into four parts: acquiring fortune, securing fortune, political capture and maximum resource extraction.

When many Americans think about wealth, they usually think exclusively about the first step, Collins said. People can create a reasonable quantity of wealth through starting or running a successful business, which could get them membership in Affluent Town.

But getting to Billionaireville requires significant resources and strategy in those next three steps. Collins describes what he calls the "asset protection sector": the tax lawyers, accountants and wealth managers who use their expertise to ensure that the super rich are being calculated about their taxes.

"Wealth defense professionals use a wide variety of tools such as legal entities, offshore bank accounts, undisclosed businesses, charitable foundations and other vehicles to hold assets," he details.

Government Power and Extreme Wealth Removal

To advance a wealth defense strategy, a family needs policy assistance. Wealth of over $40m translates to political power, Collins says, and can be used to protect assets and protect its accumulation.

The last stage is a different kind of wealth accumulation, one that Collins calls "maximum taking" to describe how the wealthy have come to affect nearly every single part of an Americans' everyday life largely through capital management, which allows wealthy individuals to invest in private companies.

"Private equity is looking for those areas of the economy where they can squeeze things a little bit harder," Collins said. "One thing I don't think people realize is these billionaire private-equity funds are what happens when so much wealth is accumulated in so few hands, and they can essentially pivot and say, 'Where else can we extract profits out of the economy?' Healthcare? Great. Mobile home parks? These people can't go anywhere, [so] you can raise their rents."

The Real Consequences

The results of this inequality go beyond the wealth getting wealthier. It's about people spending additional funds for their healthcare, rent and vet bills without seeing any significant salary growth. And Collins said the hardship and discontent of this kind of society can lead to profound dissatisfaction.

"The most powerful affluent rulers understand people are being left behind [and] are financially struggling," Collins said, adding that right-leaning leaders have been good at accessing a potent "phony populism".

Government Truth

The irony, Collins points out in his book, is that elected representatives have appointed a string of billionaires to cabinet positions. Along with wealthy entrepreneurs who had temporary but significant roles overseeing massive cuts to the federal workforce, other key positions for commerce, treasury, education and the interior are also all billionaires.

This political landscape, along with help from political partners, helped pass huge tax bills, which will make lasting reductions for the wealthy and corporations.

Future Solutions

While government groups continue to argue that immigration and poor economic deals are the source of everyone's economic problems, "the question becomes: Will the opposing party, which has also been influenced by the billionaires and big money, be able to meaningfully address the underlying harms?" Collins said.

Liberal leaders, he argues, know what policies are needed to "alter economic flow", including substantial modifications to the tax system, raising the minimum wage and supporting labor organizations.

"It was so, so close, and the legislation really did embody the will of the most of people who really want lawmakers to address some of these urgent problems," Collins said. "Wealthy influence is not about creating so much as stopping. It's easier to block than it is to make something meaningful happen, but the muscle memory is there. We know what that looks like."

Collins is hopeful that there can be change, but said it would require sustained political momentum.

"It may be quickly that the pendulum swings back, and then it really is about preserving a sustained really popular movement to make progress on this profound imbalance we're living in," he said. "We can fix this. It is fixable."