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Among countless individuals in the United States, the economy over the past five years has been challenging. Costs have skyrocketed while salaries remains unchanged. High mortgage rates have made homeownership a bleak prospect. The unemployment rate has been gradually increasing.

The majority of individuals have indicated they're delaying major life decisions, including having kids or changing careers, because of the instability. But for a very small group of people, the past five-year period couldn't have been any better.

The Billionaire Boom

The assets of the world's billionaires expanded 54% in 2020, at the climax of the pandemic. And even amid all the financial uncertainty, the stock market has only continued to grow. This growth has largely benefited just a small number of Americans: 10% of the population holds 93% of stock market wealth.

As uneven as this division seems, it's the economic framework working as it is existing today.

"Rich elites have bought their jets, they've acquired their multiple houses and mansions, but now they're securing senators and media outlets," explained economic inequality analyst Chuck Collins. "We're now moving into this other chapter of hyper-extraction where the wealthy are exploiting the system of inequality."

Mapping Economic Classes

To help others understand what exactly it means to be "affluent" 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 "Wealthville" villages: Wealth Borough, Lower Richistan, Middle Richistan, Upper Richistan and Billionaireville.

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

• At the lowest tier, Affluent Town, are the 10 million Americans who have a household income of at least $110,000 and an overall wealth 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 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 said. "Whereas in Upper Richistan, you're using a private jet. That's a really separate reality. You fly private, you have no investment in the commercial aviation system. You don't care if the whole system collapses – you're set."

Extreme Affluence Consequences

The peak in "Richistan" is Billionaireville, which is made up of about 800 American billionaires who are some of the world's wealthiest. The control that this group has far surpasses those who are simply wealthy, let alone the ordinary person who doesn't live in "Richistan" at all.

But Collins thinks the progressive slogan "end extreme wealth" doesn't capture the real problem and has a "whiff of exterminism" to it.

"It's the difference between individual behaviors and a system of rules," Collins explained. "We should be concerned about an economic system that funnels so much wealth upward to the billionaires."

Wealth Accumulation Mechanisms

To understand how wealth at the billionaire level works, Collins divides it into four parts: getting the wealth, protecting assets, 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 establishing or managing a successful business, which could get them membership in Affluent Town.

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

"Wealth defense professionals use a broad range of tools such as trusts, foreign deposits, secret corporations, philanthropic entities and other mechanisms to hold assets," he writes.

Government Power and Extreme Wealth Removal

To further a wealth defense strategy, a family needs political support. Wealth of over $40m converts to political power, Collins says, and can be used to defend wealth and maintain expansion.

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

"Private equity is seeking those corners of the economy where they can extract value 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 stored 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 increase their costs."

The Real Consequences

The consequences of this inequality go beyond the wealth getting wealthier. It's about people spending additional funds for their healthcare, rent and vet bills without seeing any significant salary growth. And Collins said the hardship and discontent of this kind of society can lead to deep discontent.

"The most powerful affluent rulers understand people are being left behind [and] are economically suffering," Collins said, adding that Republicans have been good at connecting with a potent "false common-man appeal".

Political Reality

The paradox, Collins points out in his book, is that political leaders have appointed a series of billionaires to administrative posts. Along with tech billionaires who had temporary but significant roles overseeing massive cuts to the federal workforce, other important roles for commerce, treasury, education and the interior are also all billionaires.

This administrative framework, along with help from legislative supporters, helped pass major tax legislation, which will make lasting reductions for the wealthy and corporations.

The Path Forward

While legislative bodies continue to argue that foreign entry and bad trade agreements are the source of everyone's economic problems, "the question becomes: Will the opposing party, which has also been controlled by the billionaires and big money, be able to meaningfully address the underlying harms?" Collins said.

Left-leaning officials, he argues, know what policies are needed to "alter economic flow", including significant reforms to the tax system, increasing the minimum wage and strengthening unions.

"It was so, so close, and the legislation really did embody the will of the bulk of people who really want lawmakers to solve some of these critical challenges," Collins said. "Wealthy influence is not about creating so much as stopping. It's easier to block than it is to make something significant occur, but the historical precedent is there. We know what that looks like."

Collins is hopeful that there can be change, but said it would require ongoing legislative effort.

"It may be sooner than expected that the tide turns, and then it really is about preserving a sustained really popular movement to make progress on this extreme inequality we're living in," he said. "We can solve this. It is addressable."