Billionaires Own Us
How the Elite Rig Democracy to Crush the Rest of Us
“Money doesn’t buy happiness,” my mother used to say.
She wasn’t wrong. But she left out the part about how it buys everything else—safety, time, insulation from hardship.
Happiness might be intangible, but try telling that to someone drowning in bills or working two jobs just to survive.
She also told me, “Life isn’t fair.”
On that, she nailed it.
The Wealth Gap Is a Chasm
Look around.
The top 1% of Americans now control over 30% of the nation’s wealth. The bottom half? Less than 3%.
👉 Federal Reserve, Distributional Financial Accounts, 2023
That’s not just unfair—it’s dangerous.
Because when that much wealth is concentrated in that few hands, it doesn’t just distort the economy.
It corrupts the entire political system.
These aren’t just billionaires—they’re unelected power brokers.
They buy legislation. Stall reform. Drown out the rest of us with lobbyists, dark money, and think tanks built to justify their hoarding.
Both Sides Play the Game
Let’s be clear: both parties are complicit.
Democrats talk about taxing the rich. But half of them are bankrolled by the same hedge funds and tech giants as Republicans.
And Republicans?
They cry “populism” while handing out tax cuts to billionaires and gutting regulations.
The culture war is a distraction.
The real war is economic.
And they’re counting on you to never notice.
Corporate Greed, Taxpayer Burden
ExxonMobil. Amazon. Netflix.
All paid zero in federal income taxes in certain years.
Meanwhile, working-class Americans foot the bill.
A Wall Street firm tanks the economy, gets bailed out by taxpayers, and hands out bonuses the same year.
This system isn’t broken.
It’s working exactly as intended.
CEOs: Modern-Day Kings
In 2025, the median CEO in the Equilar 100 Index made $25.6 million in total compensation.
Median CEO-to-worker pay ratio: 300 to 1.
Some? Even higher.
These people make more in a single year than many of us will earn in a lifetime.
That’s not just obscene.
It’s medieval.
And what do they actually do?
Cut jobs. Jack up prices. Rig stock buybacks. Funnel profits to shareholders.
Workers get breadcrumbs—and a lecture about “personal responsibility.”
They don’t live in the same country as us anymore.
They don’t:
send their kids to public schools
wait 8 hours in an ER
worry about rent, insulin, or heat in the winter
They live in a bubble.
And they write the rules from inside it.
Philanthropy as a Front
Even their “philanthropy” is a scam.
Most of it runs through foundations they control—buying tax breaks, good PR, and political influence.
That’s not generosity.
That’s image laundering.
And what do we get in return?
A system that tells us to “work hard” while billionaires float from one tax haven to another by private jet.
The Policy Problem
The worst part?
This isn’t just bad luck. It’s policy.
Decades of:
deregulation
union-busting
privatization
campaign finance loopholes
…have let the wealthiest Americans buy the outcomes they want.
Now it’s 2025.
Trump is back.
And the House just passed the “One Big Beautiful Bill.”
It’s a Trojan horse: entitlement cuts, deregulation, and corporate handouts wrapped in “fiscal responsibility.”
👉 H.R. 1, One Big Beautiful Bill Act
They’re coming for:
Social Security
Medicare
Medicaid
Programs we paid into our entire working lives.
They’re not trying to fix the system.
They’re trying to drain it.
Who Really Rules?
We are governed not by the people we elect—
but by the people who fund their campaigns.
Until that changes, don’t expect anything else to.
So What Now?
We name it.
We stop pretending billionaires are just “successful.”
We start calling this what it is: a hostile takeover of democracy by a moneyed elite.
We stop treating politicians like celebrities.
We start demanding they actually earn our votes.
We fight for laws that redistribute power—not just income.
And we stop apologizing for being angry.
This country has more than enough to go around.
The problem isn’t scarcity—it’s hoarding.
Money corrupts.
But power without accountability?
That corrodes everything—truth, democracy, even hope.
It’s time to start telling the truth.
Even if nobody on Capitol Hill wants to hear it.
About Dan’s Writing
Dan writes about survival, resilience, and the messy process of rebuilding a life. This space shares reflections, updates, and real-time thoughts that go beyond the polished essays he publishes on Medium.
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