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Among countless US citizens, the economic climate over the last half-decade has been difficult. Costs have soared while pay remains stagnant. Steep mortgage rates have made buying a home a dismal prospect. The rate of unemployment has been slowly rising.

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

Wealth Explosion

The assets of the world's billionaires grew 54% in 2020, at the peak of the pandemic. And even amid all the financial uncertainty, the stock market has only persisted in expanding. This increase has primarily advantaged just a small number of Americans: 10% of the population controls 93% of stock market wealth.

However unequal as this allocation seems, it's the system working as it is existing today.

"The wealthy have purchased their jets, they've purchased their multiple houses and mansions, but now they're acquiring senators and media outlets," explained economic inequality analyst Chuck Collins. "We're now entering this other chapter of maximum resource removal where the wealthy are exploiting the system of inequality."

Mapping Economic Classes

To help others grasp what exactly it means to be "affluent" in the US, Collins adopts a concept from journalist Robert Frank who, in a 2007 book on the rich, imagined the different levels of wealth as "Wealthville" villages: Prosperity Village, Lower Richistan, Middle Richistan, Upper Richistan and Billionaireville.

To contemporize the concept, Collins organizes these "economic communities" 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 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.

Altogether, 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 traveling in the coach section of a commercial plane," Collins noted. "Whereas in Upper Richistan, you're using 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 wealthiest. The power that this group has far surpasses those who are simply wealthy, let alone the average American who doesn't live in "Richistan" at all.

But Collins thinks the activist mantra "billionaires shouldn't exist" doesn't capture the real problem and has a "hint of elimination" to it.

"It's the distinction between personal actions and a framework of policies," Collins said. "We should be focused on 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 breaks it down into four parts: getting the wealth, protecting assets, policy control and extreme wealth removal.

When many Americans think about wealth, they usually think only about the first step, Collins said. People can create a modest amount of wealth through creating or operating a successful business, which could get them membership in Affluent Town.

But getting to Billionaireville requires serious investment 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 calculated about their taxes.

"Wealth defense professionals use a wide variety of tools such as legal entities, foreign deposits, undisclosed businesses, non-profit organizations and other methods to hold assets," he explains.

Government Power and Extreme Wealth Removal

To further a wealth defense strategy, a family needs policy assistance. Wealth of over $40m translates to political power, Collins says, and can be used to secure fortune and ensure continued growth.

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 capital management, which allows wealthy individuals to invest in private companies.

"Private equity is searching for those areas of the economy where they can squeeze things a little bit harder," Collins said. "One thing I don't think people realize is these billionaire private-equity funds are what happens when so much wealth is parked 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 increase their costs."

Actual Impacts

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 meaningful wage increases. And Collins said the hardship and discontent of this kind of society can lead to profound dissatisfaction.

"The most powerful affluent rulers understand people are being excluded [and] are financially struggling," Collins said, adding that conservative politicians have been good at tapping into a potent "phony populism".

Government Truth

The irony, Collins points out in his book, is that political leaders have appointed a string of billionaires to government roles. Along with tech billionaires who had temporary but significant roles overseeing substantial reductions 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 significant fiscal policies, which will make permanent tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations.

Potential Changes

While political parties continue to argue that foreign entry and bad trade agreements 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 seriously confront the underlying harms?" Collins said.

Liberal leaders, he argues, know what policies are needed to "alter economic flow", including substantial modifications to the tax system, increasing 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 building so much as blocking. It's easier to block than it is to make something substantial take place, but the muscle memory 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 quickly that the tide turns, and then it really is about preserving a continuous public campaign to make progress on this severe disparity we're living in," he said. "We can fix this. It is solvable."