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Among countless individuals in the United States, the financial landscape over the past five years has been difficult. Costs have escalated while pay remains stagnant. Elevated mortgage rates have made purchasing property a grim prospect. The unemployment rate has been creeping up.

The majority of individuals have reported they're postponing major life decisions, including having kids or changing careers, because of the instability. But for a select few of people, the last five years couldn't have been more successful.

Fortune Expansion

The wealth of the world's billionaires expanded 54% in 2020, at the height of the pandemic. And even throughout all the economic instability, the stock market has only kept rising. This expansion has mostly helped just a small number of Americans: 10% of the population controls 93% of stock market wealth.

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

"The wealthy have bought their jets, they've bought their multiple houses and mansions, but now they're buying senators and media outlets," commented inequality researcher Chuck Collins. "We're now entering this other chapter of extreme wealth extraction where the wealthy are taking advantage of the system of inequality."

Mapping Economic Classes

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

To modernize the concept, Collins organizes these "wealth villages" based on income levels:

• At the lowest tier, Affluent Town, are the 10 million Americans who have a family earnings of at least $110,000 and an total assets of over $1.5m.
• The villages get more exclusive 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 comprise 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 flying in the coach section of a commercial plane," Collins noted. "Whereas in Upper Richistan, you're traveling via 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 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 power that this group has greatly exceeds those who are simply well-off, let alone the ordinary person who doesn't live in "Richistan" at all.

But Collins thinks the progressive slogan "end extreme wealth" fails to address the core issue and has a "hint of elimination" to it.

"It's the distinction between private conduct and a structure of regulations," Collins commented. "We should be focused on an economic system that directs 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 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 residency 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 skills to ensure that the super rich are being deliberate about their taxes.

"Wealth defense professionals use a extensive selection of tools such as financial instruments, foreign deposits, secret corporations, 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 government backing. Wealth of over $40m converts to political power, Collins says, and can be used to defend wealth and maintain expansion.

The final phase is a different kind of wealth accumulation, one that Collins calls "extreme removal" to describe how the wealthy have come to affect nearly every single part of an Americans' routine activities largely through private equity, which allows wealthy individuals to invest in private companies.

"Private equity is seeking those corners of the economy where they can squeeze things 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 generate returns out of the economy?' Healthcare? Great. Mobile home parks? These people can't go anywhere, [so] you can boost their expenses."

Tangible Effects

The results 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 significant salary growth. And Collins said the hardship and discontent of this kind of society can lead to profound dissatisfaction.

"The most powerful wealthy elites understand people are being left behind [and] are monetarily hurting," Collins said, adding that Republicans have been good at tapping into a potent "false common-man appeal".

Government Truth

The contradiction, Collins points out in his book, is that political leaders have appointed a series of billionaires to cabinet positions. Along with tech billionaires who had short yet influential roles overseeing significant decreases to the federal workforce, other key positions for commerce, treasury, education and the interior are also all billionaires.

This government structure, along with help from congressional allies, helped pass huge tax bills, which will make permanent tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations.

Potential Changes

While government groups continue to argue that foreign entry 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 seriously confront the underlying harms?" Collins said.

Liberal leaders, he argues, know what policies are needed to "change wealth distribution", including significant reforms to the tax system, boosting the minimum wage and empowering worker groups.

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

Collins is optimistic that there can be change, but said it would require continuous government action.

"It may be sooner than expected that the pendulum swings back, and then it really is about preserving a sustained really popular movement to make progress on this severe disparity we're living in," he said. "We can fix this. It is solvable."