Editor’s Note: The following essay was a winner in the Informational category of the 2024-2025 First Year Writing Contest. It was nominated by Professor Jeannette Lindholm.
The wealth gap between billionaires and the average working-class citizen in America has grown to an unfair and unhealthy level. While success and innovation should be rewarded, we now face a reality where a small group of ultra-wealthy individuals control a disproportionate share of the nation’s wealth and influence. Many billionaires use their fortunes to avoid paying taxes, influence government decisions, and dominate industries through monopolies. This creates an unbalanced system where regular people struggle to get by, while the richest individuals continue to grow wealthier without facing the same obligations as everyone else. Billionaires should be allowed to succeed, but the government has a responsibility to enforce fair taxation, limit political influence, and regulate monopolies to protect the broader public and reduce the wealth gap.
One of the biggest concerns with billionaire wealth is the way it affects political influence. Many billionaires donate millions to political campaigns or fund lobbying efforts that help pass laws favoring their interests. According to political scientist Larry Bartels, billionaires often engage in what he calls “stealth politics,” where they influence government decisions behind the scenes without public awareness (Bartels). As a result, working-class Americans, who lack the same financial power, find their voices drowned out. When the richest few are able to control public policy, democracy suffers, and regular citizens lose trust in the system that is supposed to represent them.
Another serious issue is the way billionaires avoid paying their fair share of taxes. Many use legal loopholes and financial tools, like offshore accounts or trusts, to protect their wealth. Chuck Collins explains in The Wealth Hoarders that billionaires pay millions just to avoid paying billions in taxes. This leaves a disproportionate burden on middle and working-class taxpayers, who contribute a higher percentage of their income to support public services like schools, roads, and healthcare. A fair tax system should not allow the wealthiest Americans to benefit from the country’s infrastructure while avoiding the responsibility of helping to pay for it.
America is built on the idea of fairness, where people who work hard and follow the rules have a shot at success. However, when billionaires can use their resources to avoid taxes and influence government policy, that fairness becomes distorted. Working-class families often struggle to make ends meet, while the richest citizens are able to bend the rules in their favor. This is not about punishing wealth, it is about ensuring that everyone is held to the same standard. Fair taxation means closing loopholes that allow billionaires to hide their wealth in offshore accounts or trusts, enforcing higher tax rates on extreme wealth, and implementing a more progressive tax system that scales with income. As Chuck Collins writes in The Wealth Hoarders, “Wealthy families use complex trusts and offshore tax havens to shrink or eliminate their taxes, shifting the responsibility onto ordinary taxpayers.” For example, introducing a modest wealth tax on assets over a certain amount or increasing capital gains taxes for the ultra-rich would ensure they contribute more fairly. It also means better funding the IRS to go after large-scale tax evasion, not just auditing regular workers. A fair economy must hold the wealthiest accountable just like everyone else, so that the responsibility of supporting society does not fall unfairly on the middle and working class.
The government also plays a crucial role in preventing monopolies, an area where billionaire power often goes unchecked. A monopoly occurs when one company dominates an entire market, limiting consumer choice and raising prices. Some of the largest corporations in America—like Amazon, Google, and Facebook—have grown so massive that many people feel they have no real alternatives.
For example, Amazon controls over 40% of the U.S. e-commerce market, making it extremely difficult for small online businesses to compete. The company has been accused of using data from third-party sellers on its platform to create its own competing products, undercutting those same sellers. This practice sparked a major antitrust investigation in 2023, with the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) filing a lawsuit accusing Amazon of harming competition and inflating prices. Google, on the other hand, holds about 90% of the global search engine market. Its dominance in online advertising has also come under scrutiny, especially after internal documents revealed that it often prioritizes its own products in search results, limiting visibility for smaller competitors. Meta (formerly Facebook) owns not just Facebook, but also Instagram and WhatsApp, giving it massive control over social media and digital communication. In 2020, the FTC and 46 states sued Meta for anticompetitive behavior, arguing that its acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp were meant to eliminate competition.
These companies are run by some of the wealthiest people in the world, and their size allows them to crush smaller businesses, control market pricing, and shape the flow of information. Carl Rhodes, in Stinking Rich, points out that some billionaires try to present themselves as “good billionaires” by giving to charity, but this does not erase the fact that they often use their power to expand their influence and dominate markets. This does not mean that billionaires should not exist. Many of them have created products and services that improve people's lives. The issue is not their success; it is the unchecked power and lack of accountability that come with extreme wealth. The government can create a better balance by closing tax loopholes, enforcing antitrust laws, and holding the wealthiest citizens to the same responsibilities as everyone else.
Some argue that taxing billionaires more heavily or regulating large companies will hurt the economy. They claim that these wealthy individuals create jobs and drive innovation, and that too much government interference will slow growth. While it is true that billionaires can generate economic activity, wealth inequality can actually damage long-term economic stability. When too much money is concentrated in the hands of a few, there is less money circulating through the broader economy. According to Oxfam, extreme wealth inequality weakens economic growth and social stability (Jacobs). A strong economy depends on a thriving middle class, not just a few ultra-rich individuals at the top.
This issue is about creating a system that offers equal opportunity for success. The goal is not to punish those who have built wealth, but to ask that they contribute fairly to the society that helped them succeed. The government must take action to ensure that economic success does not turn into political dominance or unfair privilege. Fair taxation and protections against monopolies are not extreme ideas, they are basic steps to ensure that wealth does not equal unlimited power. If we want a society where hard work truly pays off, we must demand accountability from the richest Americans and ensure that the government stands up for working people.
Works Cited
Bartels, Larry M. “Billionaires and Stealth Politics” University of Chicago Press, 1 Dec. 2018, press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/B/bo29143391.html.
Collins, Chuck. “The Wealth Hoarders: How Billionaires Pay Millions to Hide Trillions” Polity Press, 2021, www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?book_slug=the-wealth-hoarders-how-billionaires-pay-millions-to-hide-trillions--9781509543489. Accessed 29 Mar. 2025.
DesJardins, Joseph R. “Ethical Challenges to Business as Usual” 2nd ed., Broadview Press, 22 Mar. 2025, broadviewpress.com/product/ethical-challenges-to-business-as-usual-second-edition/.
Didier Jacobs. “Extreme Wealth Is Not Merited” Oxfam. 24 Nov. 2015, www-cdn.oxfam.org/s3fs-public/file_attachments/dp-extreme-wealth-is-not-merited-241115-en.pdf. Accessed 29 Mar. 2025.
Page, Benjamin I., Jason Seawright, and Matthew J. Lacombe. "Democracy and the Policy Preferences of Wealthy Americans." Perspectives on Politics, vol. 11, no. 1, Cambridge University Press, 19 Mar. 2013, pp. 51–73, www.cambridge.org/core/journals/perspectives-on-politics/article/abs/democracy-and-the-policy-preferences-of-wealthy-americans/B783EEF6785FEE093198ABED8D2C3D61.
Rhodes, Carl. “Stinking Rich: The Four Myths of the Good Billionaire” Bristol University Press, January 21, 2025 bristoluniversitypress.co.uk/trade/stinking-rich. Accessed 29 Mar. 2025.