Becky Birch Marengo argues in a new opinion piece that the rise of the world’s first trillionaire shows how extreme wealth is concentrating power and undermining democracy.
Policy choices are central to her case: she says cuts to food and healthcare aid, mass incarceration, school privatization and billionaire tax loopholes all shift resources from poorer Americans to the rich.
Unchecked wealth, she writes, is not just an economic imbalance but a political one, choking politics, rigging markets and helping elites bankroll autocrats while avoiding higher taxes.
Her proposed response is political action — using votes and public pressure to back leaders who would rewrite rules and tax billionaires more heavily.