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To numerous individuals in the United States, the economy over the last half-decade has been challenging. Prices have soared while wages remains stagnant. Steep mortgage rates have made buying a home a dismal prospect. The unemployment rate has been creeping up.

Many Americans have stated they're postponing major life decisions, including having kids or switching jobs, because of economic uncertainty. But for a select few of people, the last five years couldn't have been more prosperous.

Wealth Explosion

The wealth of the world's billionaires increased 54% in 2020, at the peak of the pandemic. And even throughout all the market volatility, the stock market has only persisted in expanding. This increase has largely benefited just a small number 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 currently designed.

"The wealthy have purchased their jets, they've acquired their multiple houses and mansions, but now they're buying 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 preying on the system of inequality."

Mapping Economic Classes

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

To modernize 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 annual salary of at least $110,000 and an total assets 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.

Collectively, the residents of these villages comprise the top 10% of the wealth income distribution, about 14 million Americans altogether, though their experiences vary dramatically.

"You could be in Lower Richistan, and you're still flying in the coach section of a commercial plane," Collins said. "Whereas in Upper Richistan, you're flying in 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 collapses – 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 control that this group has substantially outweighs those who are simply well-off, let alone the ordinary person who doesn't inhabit "Richistan" at all.

But Collins thinks the progressive slogan "billionaires shouldn't exist" fails to address the core issue and has a "hint of elimination" to it.

"It's the difference between individual behaviors and a system of rules," Collins explained. "We should be concerned about 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: accumulating assets, securing fortune, government influence and hyper-extraction.

When many Americans think about wealth, they usually think solely 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 serious investment and tactics 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 deliberate about their taxes.

"Wealth defense professionals use a broad range of tools such as legal entities, foreign deposits, secret corporations, non-profit organizations and other methods to hold assets," he details.

Political Influence and Hyper-Extraction

To further a wealth defense strategy, a family needs government backing. Wealth of over $40m translates to political power, Collins says, and can be used to secure fortune and maintain expansion.

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

"Private equity is looking for those sectors of the economy where they can squeeze things a little bit harder," Collins said. "One thing I don't think people comprehend is these billionaire private-equity funds are what happens when so much wealth is stored 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 boost their expenses."

Actual Impacts

The consequences of this inequality go beyond the wealth getting wealthier. It's about people paying more for their healthcare, rent and vet bills without seeing any meaningful wage increases. And Collins said the pain and frustration of this kind of society can lead to serious unrest.

"The most powerful wealthy elites understand people are being marginalized [and] are economically suffering," Collins said, adding that right-leaning leaders have been good at accessing a potent "false common-man appeal".

Policy Situation

The contradiction, Collins points out in his book, is that elected representatives have appointed a succession of billionaires to administrative posts. Along with tech billionaires who had temporary but significant roles overseeing massive cuts to the federal workforce, other crucial appointments for commerce, treasury, education and the interior are also all billionaires.

This political landscape, along with help from political partners, helped pass significant fiscal policies, which will make lasting reductions for the wealthy and corporations.

The Path Forward

While political parties continue to argue that immigration and poor economic deals are the source of everyone's economic problems, "the issue remains: Will the alternative political group, which has also been influenced by the billionaires and big money, be able to effectively tackle the underlying harms?" Collins said.

Left-leaning officials, he argues, know what policies are needed to "reverse the updraft of wealth", including significant reforms to the tax system, increasing the minimum wage and supporting labor organizations.

"It was so, so close, and the bill really did represent the will of the bulk of people who really want lawmakers to solve some of these pressing issues," Collins said. "Wealthy influence is not about developing so much as blocking. It's easier to block than it is to make something significant occur, but the institutional knowledge is there. We know what that looks like."

Collins is positive that there can be change, but said it would require ongoing legislative effort.

"It may be sooner than expected that the tide turns, and then it really is about preserving a ongoing grassroots effort to make progress on this profound imbalance we're living in," he said. "We can fix this. It is fixable."