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Among countless individuals in the United States, the economic climate over the recent five-year span has been challenging. Expenses have skyrocketed while pay remains stagnant. High mortgage rates have made buying a home a bleak prospect. The jobless rate has been creeping up.

The majority of individuals have indicated they're putting off major life decisions, including raising children or switching jobs, because of the instability. But for a tiny fraction of people, the last five years couldn't have been more successful.

Fortune Expansion

The fortune of the world's billionaires increased 54% in 2020, at the height of the pandemic. And even throughout all the economic instability, the stock market has only persisted in expanding. This growth has mostly helped just a limited group of Americans: 10% of the population holds 93% of stock market wealth.

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

"Rich elites have purchased their jets, they've acquired their multiple houses and mansions, but now they're acquiring senators and media outlets," stated wealth disparity expert Chuck Collins. "We're now entering this other chapter of maximum resource removal where the wealthy are preying on the system of inequality."

Mapping Economic Classes

To help others understand 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, envisioned the different levels of wealth as "Affluencia" villages: Wealth Borough, Lower Richistan, Middle Richistan, Upper Richistan and Billionaireville.

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

• At the base level, Affluent Town, are the 10 million Americans who have a household income 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 constitute 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 traveling via a private jet. That's a really separate reality. You fly private, you have no interest in the commercial aviation system. You don't care if the whole system shuts down – you're set."

Extreme Affluence Consequences

The highest hill in "Richistan" is Billionaireville, which is made up of about 800 American billionaires who are some of the world's most affluent. The influence that this group has substantially outweighs those who are simply wealthy, let alone the typical citizen who doesn't inhabit "Richistan" at all.

But Collins thinks the activist mantra "billionaires shouldn't exist" misses the point and has a "hint of elimination" to it.

"It's the difference between personal actions and a structure of regulations," Collins explained. "We should be concerned about an economic system that funnels so much wealth upward to the billionaires."

Wealth Accumulation Mechanisms

To understand how wealth at the billionaire level works, Collins separates it into four parts: accumulating assets, defending the wealth, policy control and hyper-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 creating or operating a successful business, which could get them residency in Affluent Town.

But getting to Billionaireville requires substantial commitment and strategy in those next three steps. Collins describes what he calls the "wealth defense industry": the tax lawyers, accountants and wealth managers who use their expertise to ensure that the super rich are being strategic about their taxes.

"Wealth defense professionals use a wide variety of tools such as financial instruments, foreign deposits, anonymous shell companies, non-profit organizations and other vehicles to hold assets," he details.

Political Influence and Hyper-Extraction

To further a wealth defense strategy, a family needs policy assistance. Wealth of over $40m becomes 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 "hyper extraction" to describe how the wealthy have come to affect nearly every single part of an Americans' everyday life largely through investment firms, which allows wealthy individuals to support private companies.

"Private equity is seeking those areas of the economy where they can increase profits a little bit harder," Collins said. "One thing I don't think people understand 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 squeeze money out of the economy?' Healthcare? Great. Mobile home parks? These people can't go anywhere, [so] you can raise their rents."

Tangible Effects

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 substantial income improvement. And Collins said the pain and frustration of this kind of society can lead to serious unrest.

"The most powerful oligarchs understand people are being left behind [and] are economically suffering," Collins said, adding that conservative politicians have been good at tapping into a potent "false common-man appeal".

Political Reality

The paradox, 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 short yet influential 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 major tax legislation, which will make lasting reductions for the wealthy and corporations.

Future Solutions

While legislative bodies continue to argue that immigration and poor economic deals are the source of everyone's economic problems, "the issue remains: Will the opposing party, which has also been controlled by the billionaires and big money, be able to seriously confront the underlying harms?" Collins said.

Progressive politicians, he argues, know what policies are needed to "reverse the updraft of wealth", including substantial modifications to the tax system, boosting the minimum wage and supporting labor organizations.

"It was so, so close, and the legislation really did reflect the will of the majority of people who really want lawmakers to address some of these urgent problems," Collins said. "Wealthy influence is not about creating so much as blocking. It's easier to block than it is to make something substantial take place, but the institutional knowledge 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 before we know it that the balance shifts, 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 solvable."