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Among countless individuals in the United States, the economy over the last half-decade has been tough. Costs have escalated while wages remains unchanged. Steep mortgage rates have made buying a home a bleak prospect. The jobless rate has been slowly rising.

The majority of individuals have indicated they're postponing major life decisions, including raising children or switching jobs, because of economic uncertainty. But for a tiny fraction of people, the past five-year period couldn't have been more prosperous.

Fortune Expansion

The assets of the world's billionaires expanded 54% in 2020, at the climax of the pandemic. And even amid all the economic instability, the stock market has only kept rising. This growth has largely benefited just a tiny percentage of Americans: 10% of the population controls 93% of stock market wealth.

As uneven as this division seems, it's the financial structure 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," 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."

Analyzing Income Brackets

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

To update the concept, Collins classifies these "economic communities" based on income levels:

• At the foundation, 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 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 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 using a private jet. That's a really separate reality. You fly private, you have no stakes in the commercial aviation system. You don't care if the whole system fails – you're set."

Extreme Affluence Consequences

The summit in "Richistan" is Billionaireville, which is made up of about 800 American billionaires who are some of the world's wealthiest. The influence that this group has far surpasses those who are simply affluent, let alone the typical citizen who doesn't reside in "Richistan" at all.

But Collins thinks the progressive slogan "abolish billionaires" fails to address the core issue and has a "suggestion of eradication" to it.

"It's the separation between private conduct and a structure of regulations," Collins explained. "We should be focused on an economic system that funnels so much wealth upward to the billionaires."

Fortune Building Strategies

To understand how wealth at the billionaire level works, Collins breaks it down into four parts: acquiring fortune, protecting assets, 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 limited sum of wealth through creating or operating 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 strategic about their taxes.

"Wealth defense professionals use a broad range of tools such as trusts, offshore bank accounts, anonymous shell companies, philanthropic entities and other mechanisms to hold assets," he explains.

Political Influence and Hyper-Extraction

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

The final phase is a different kind of wealth accumulation, one that Collins calls "hyper extraction" to describe how the wealthy have come to influence nearly every single part of an Americans' routine activities largely through investment firms, which allows wealthy individuals to support private companies.

"Private equity is searching for those corners 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 accumulated in so few hands, and they can basically shift 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."

The Real Consequences

The results of this inequality go beyond the wealth getting wealthier. It's about people facing higher costs 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 affluent rulers understand people are being excluded [and] are financially struggling," Collins said, adding that Republicans have been good at connecting with a potent "phony populism".

Policy Situation

The paradox, Collins points out in his book, is that elected representatives have appointed a series of billionaires to government roles. Along with tech billionaires who had temporary but significant roles overseeing substantial reductions to the federal workforce, other important roles 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 permanent tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations.

Potential Changes

While government groups continue to argue that foreign entry and unfavorable commercial treaties are the source of everyone's economic problems, "the challenge is: Will the other major party, which has also been captured by the billionaires and big money, be able to meaningfully address the underlying harms?" Collins said.

Progressive politicians, he argues, know what policies are needed to "reverse the updraft of wealth", 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 bulk of people who really want lawmakers to solve some of these pressing issues," Collins said. "Oligarchic power is not about developing so much as preventing. It's easier to block than it is to make something significant occur, but the muscle memory 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 quickly that the balance shifts, and then it really is about preserving a continuous public campaign to make progress on this extreme inequality we're living in," he said. "We can solve this. It is solvable."