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Among countless Americans, the financial landscape over the past five years has been difficult. Prices have escalated while salaries remains unchanged. Elevated mortgage rates have made homeownership a bleak prospect. The jobless rate has been gradually increasing.

Many Americans have reported they're delaying major life decisions, including raising children or switching jobs, because of economic uncertainty. But for a select few of people, the past five-year period couldn't have been more successful.

Fortune Expansion

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

As uneven as this allocation seems, it's the financial structure 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," commented economic inequality analyst Chuck Collins. "We're now entering this other chapter of extreme wealth extraction where the wealthy are preying on the system of inequality."

Analyzing Income Brackets

To help others comprehend what exactly it means to be "wealthy" 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: Prosperity Village, Lower Richistan, Middle Richistan, Upper Richistan and Billionaireville.

To update the concept, Collins organizes these "wealth villages" 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 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.

In total, the residents of these villages make up the top 10% of the wealth income distribution, about 14 million Americans altogether, though their circumstances vary dramatically.

"You could be in Lower Richistan, and you're still sitting in the coach section of a commercial plane," Collins explained. "Whereas in Upper Richistan, you're flying in a private jet. That's a really distinct lifestyle. You fly private, you have no interest in the commercial aviation system. You don't care if the whole system fails – you're set."

The Billionaireville Effect

The peak in "Richistan" is Billionaireville, which is made up of about 800 American billionaires who are some of the world's most affluent. The control that this group has far surpasses those who are simply well-off, let alone the typical citizen who doesn't live in "Richistan" at all.

But Collins thinks the political catchphrase "abolish billionaires" fails to address the core issue and has a "hint of elimination" to it.

"It's the separation between individual behaviors and a system of rules," Collins said. "We should be worried about an economic system that directs so much wealth upward to the billionaires."

Fortune Building Strategies

To understand how wealth at the billionaire level works, Collins separates it into four parts: accumulating assets, securing fortune, policy control and extreme wealth removal.

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 membership in Affluent Town.

But getting to Billionaireville requires significant resources and planning in those next three steps. Collins describes what he calls the "fortune security field": the tax lawyers, accountants and wealth managers who use their knowledge to ensure that the super rich are being deliberate about their taxes.

"Wealth defense professionals use a extensive selection of tools such as legal entities, offshore bank accounts, undisclosed businesses, non-profit organizations and other vehicles to hold assets," he writes.

Political Influence and Hyper-Extraction

To enhance a wealth defense strategy, a family needs political support. Wealth of over $40m becomes political power, Collins says, and can be used to protect assets and protect its accumulation.

The ultimate step is a different kind of wealth accumulation, one that Collins calls "maximum taking" to describe how the wealthy have come to touch nearly every single part of an Americans' daily existence largely through investment firms, which allows wealthy individuals to invest in private companies.

"Private equity is seeking those sectors of the economy where they can extract value 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 basically shift 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 raise their rents."

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 substantial income improvement. And Collins said the suffering and anger of this kind of society can lead to deep discontent.

"The most powerful oligarchs understand people are being marginalized [and] are monetarily hurting," Collins said, adding that conservative politicians have been good at connecting with a potent "false common-man appeal".

Government Truth

The irony, Collins points out in his book, is that government officials have appointed a succession of billionaires to administrative posts. Along with wealthy entrepreneurs 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 administrative framework, along with help from congressional allies, 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 unfavorable commercial treaties are the source of everyone's economic problems, "the question becomes: Will the alternative political group, which has also been captured by the billionaires and big money, be able to effectively tackle the underlying harms?" Collins said.

Liberal leaders, he argues, know what policies are needed to "change wealth distribution", including substantial modifications to the tax system, raising the minimum wage and strengthening unions.

"It was so, so close, and the legislation really did reflect the will of the bulk of people who really want lawmakers to solve some of these pressing issues," Collins said. "Elite control is not about developing so much as stopping. 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 continuous government action.

"It may be quickly that the tide turns, 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 address this. It is solvable."