The Billionaire Boom: How Policy and Plutocracy Forged a New Gilded Age

2 hours ago7 min read

The dramatic rise in the number of billionaires is not a simple economic trend but a significant political and historical shift, mirroring the Gilded Age and testing the core principles of American democracy. In 1990, the United States was home to 66 billionaires; today, that number nears a thousand, with their collective share of national wealth skyrocketing from 7 percent to 18 percent.This immense concentration of wealth is largely a result of deliberate policy. Over the last fifty years, a methodical erosion of progressive taxation—the average rate for the top 400 earners has been cut in half since the 1970s, while rates for the bottom 90 percent have seen little change—has created a system where enormous fortunes can grow with little resistance.The outcome is the rise of the 'centibillionaire,' a class that did not exist ten years ago. Figures like Elon Musk have seen their wealth surge from under $20 billion to nearly $400 billion, a climb powered by technology, inheritance, and a tax code that favors investment income over wages.This is not a natural market evolution; it is the direct result of legislative decisions that have favored wealth accumulation for a few over widespread economic well-being, creating a cycle where financial power translates into political clout. The start of the second Trump administration provided a clear picture of this merger, with billionaires not just present but commanding the stage, their subsequent appointments to high-level government positions solidifying a form of plutocratic rule rarely seen in modern America.The recent passage of a major legislative bill exemplifies this dynamic, acting as the most significant transfer of wealth to the top in the nation's history. At the same time, the public display of extreme wealth—from superyachts costing half a billion dollars to temporary 3D-printed restaurants in the Maldives—has broken the traditional discretion of the ultra-wealthy, instead promoting a culture of visible extravagance that stokes public anger.This frustration is becoming a powerful political movement, as seen in the 'Make Billionaires Pay' protests and the successful mayoral campaign of Zohran Mamdani in New York City, which directly labeled every billionaire as a policy failure. The belief, once limited to progressive groups, is now widespread, with 67 percent of Americans convinced that billionaires make society less equitable.Historically, America accepted such inequality by believing in the myth of upward mobility, but the evidence contradicts this: a child born today has less than half the chance of earning more than their parents compared to a child born in 1940. As the historian Ramsay MacMullen noted in his analysis of Rome's decline, the central pattern was 'fewer had more.' We now face a similar crossroads, where the viability of democracy is challenged by the sheer magnitude of concentrated wealth and its direct control over political power. The pendulum of public acceptance, long stabilized by the promise of opportunity, is now swinging firmly toward a call for systemic change, indicating a potential confrontation with the very foundations of American capitalism.

#billionaires

#wealth gap

#tax policy

#protests

#inequality

#editorial picks news

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