BURNED BY BILLIONAIRES

How the ultrawealthy are ruining our economy, society, and planet, and what we might be able to do about it.

Collins, a senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies, specifically calls out billionaires in the title of his latest book, but his focus encompasses “households that are in the top one-tenth of 1 percent,” those with more than $40 million in assets, the approximate point at which “wealth translates into levels of influence and power that distort democracy.” Collins argues that, regardless of how generous or admired individuals within this class may be, the collective actions and existence of billionaires contribute to the worsening of almost every aspect of life. For the past several decades, workers have shared increasingly less in the productivity gains of their ever-wealthier employers, one of several mechanisms allowing fewer people to amass the majority of society’s wealth. Taxation reform, especially President Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, have shrunk what the wealthy pay, particularly the once-robust estate tax. These and other public policies “have enriched asset owners at the expense of wage earners,” enabling family dynasties and individuals to amass eye-boggling fortunes far beyond what’s possible by mere salary alone. The enduring myth of meritocracy furthers the misperception that billionaires deserve their riches—and that the poor deserve their misfortune. Ultrawealthy donors funnel huge amounts of money into super PACs for favored candidates and then lean on elected officials to pass policies favorable to billionaires. The world’s richest people, through their polluting companies and super-yachts, also contribute an outsize amount to worsening climate change; Collins writes that “the emissions of the top 1 percent will cause 1.3 million excess deaths due to heat between 2020 and 2030.” Numerous charts and comic illustrations pepper the text. Collins offers many straightforward, if not simple, solutions for reversing the “billionaire burn” at both personal and governmental levels. However, political developments in the United States may be pushing even the most sensible reforms further out of reach.

An informed and measured exploration of the myriad harms billionaires impose.