Trillionaire
Trillionaire
Elon Musk is, essentially, a trillionaire even though stock prices fluctuate some from day to day. His wealth has entered a space that is genuinely difficult for human minds to wrap their heads around. It's worth trying to understand what the number one trillion represents.
Here are three examples that help explain the magnitude of this number.
Consider dollar bills laid end to end.
Now consider the speed of light. At 186,000 miles per second:
The gap between a million and a billion is large. The gap between a billion and a trillion is so vast it strains our abilities to comprehend it. Keep this in mind as we examine what that kind of wealth means as the majority of voters try to preserve and improve democracy in upcoming elections.
Federal political campaigns require politicians running for a federal office to receive contributions. A trillionaire can easily contribute large sums of money and it is clear that politicians listen to whatever messages these contributors are delivering.
French Economist Gabriel Zucman
Right now there is one trillionaire. French economist Gabriel Zucman's research on wealth concentration offers some of the best insight into comprehending this concentration. The wealthiest 0.00001 percent of Americans, about 19 households, accumulated roughly $2.6 trillion in wealth in a single year, from 2023 to 2024. The biggest one-year increase on record. In 1910, these richest households owned wealth equal to about 4 percent of U.S. national income. Today, that share has climbed to 12 percent.
The top 0.001 percent wealthiest Americans, about 1300 households, likely require a net worth in the range of $500 million to $1 billion or more to be included in this group. It took 40 years for these ultra-elite groups to grow their share of household wealth from 0.1 percent in 1982 to 1.2 percent in 2023. In just one year - 2023 to 2024 - that share jumped further to 1.8 percent (Fortune). This acceleration in wealth is speeding up as it has for decades.
There is a common distraction thrown around that claims the largest transfer of wealth in America, from 1982 to today, has been from younger Americans to older Americans. Although there is evidence that some transfer of this wealth has occurred, by far the most significant transfer of wealth in America is from poorer people to the richest. Data from the Federal Reserve Economic Data clearly shows that the bottom 50 percent of American households have just 2.5 percent of total national wealth, while the top 1 percent hold more than 31 percent. A generational transfer of wealth does not explain that distribution. A wealth transfer from the poor to the rich does.
K-Shaped Economy (AI)
This current concentration of wealth was aided by tax cuts and is often described as a K-Shaped economy because it grows for some and shrinks for others. President Ronald Reagan famously said, "government is the problem" and shortly afterward he (along with Congress) enacted the largest tax cut in U.S. history, thereby reducing government revenues by $19 trillion (in today's terms). A closer look makes tax cuts like these seem like the bigger government problem to me. By the end of his administration a $10 trillion reduction in revenues remained. This reduction was paid for by increasing the U.S. debt. The main beneficiaries were the richest Americans. Further tax cuts under President George W. Bush (and Congress) cost roughly 2 percent of GDP. In 2017 Congress passed a $1.9 trillion tax cut called the Tax Cut In Jobs Act and made it permanent in 2025 (The Big Beautiful Bill). The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates this law will increase the budget deficit by $2.8 trillion by 2034, and cause 10.9 million Americans to lose health insurance coverage. Further CBO analysis estimated the highest 10 percent of earners would see incomes rise by 2.7 percent by 2034 mainly due to tax cuts. While the lowest 10 percent would see incomes fall by 3.1 percent mainly due to cuts to programs such as Medicaid and food aid. (Wikipedia)
The public was assured by Congress (and Fed Chair Alan Greenspan) that these tax cuts would economically benefit workers, pay for themselves through economic growth, and improve society in general. That didn't happen. Instead a few billionaires and one trillionaire were created. Sixty percent of the Tax Cut In Jobs Act bill are going to the top 20 percent of households (Tax Policy Center).
Billionaires made 19 percent of all reported federal campaign contributions in 2024 (NY Times). A trillionaire helped fire a significant percentage of important Federal employees. The national debt has grown to over $39 trillion, meaning every single person in America owes around $115,975 of that debt. This is not slowing down. Instead it is increasing. These statistics are not partisan issues. The concentration of wealth continues no matter who is president or what the political makeup of congress is.
Zebra Mussels (AI)
This current concentration of wealth was aided by tax cuts that reduced government revenues. One way to think about what is happening now is to look at what happens when an invasive species emerges and, over time, manages to dominate by eliminating the competition. Minnesota has a fresh water problem with an aquatic mollusk species called a zebra mussel, a highly destructive invasive species. They are aggressive filter-feeders that strip the water of plankton, and create an imbalance in the available fresh water food supply needed by native species. The damage caused by zebra mussels is increasing over time as they aggressively spread across North American fresh waterways. Once established they are extremely difficult to eliminate.
They were introduced in the 1980s (USGS.gov), the same time period that Ronald Reagan initiated a series of very large tax cuts. During this time another highly destructive force is present, emerging, and is also eliminating the competition. Wealth concentration is an aggressive force that transfers wealth from working people to the very wealthy. This damaging force is not slowing down, rather as time goes by it keeps getting more powerful. This powerful force is completely legal even though economic conditions keep worsening for more and more classes of workers. Once wealth concentration forces are established they are extremely difficult to eliminate.
Many working people are adversely affected by the concentration of wealth because they experience a decrease in their standard of living as the price of assets increase. This massive concentration of wealth is not slowing down, it is accelerating. It doesn't matter if you identify with a political party or are independent, the forces driving this concentration of wealth are coming after you, the way you live, and your wealth. You can see the resemblance with how zebra mussels achieved massive expansion by going after native species. Eventually the ultra rich will target your children and your grandchildren. Because there is so much evidence showing the negative effects wealth concentration has on the lifestyles of the majority of voters (e.g., housing, healthcare, education, wages, and food), this should be a key voter issue.
History shows that it is possible to overcome negative outcomes generated by excessive wealth concentration. It's been done before. Policies enacted after WWII stabilized wealth in America for about 60 years by enacting sensible tax policies. It used to be common for families to have a single income earner, own a house, get healthcare, educate children, and put healthy food on the table. Today it's not easy to compete with billionaires and a trillionaire because they have so much power. However, if a large enough movement of resistance emerges, then a trillion dollars is not enough to prevent the competition from achieving successes.
Think of it this way. Gold is a very valuable asset. However, one trillion atoms of gold yields the following amount of weight in grams: 3.27 divided by 10 billion. Since that result is an incredibly small number that approaches zero, one trillion atoms of gold does not really have any monetary value at all. So, even if someone is a trillionaire, it's possible to assign your own personal value of zero to the weight of their influence. What's important is finding a winning strategy, dedicating the time and energy needed to follow that winning strategy, never giving up, and remembering that all working families are depending upon this win. Obstacles will be put in the way but they are only there as a distraction.
Lottery Winner (AI)
Finally, discussing large numbers and thinking about winning against difficult odds is a reminder of the following reality. There are many human genomic sequences possible in the process that creates human life on Earth. An accurate answer to the question about how many different sequences are possible every time a life is created is a hard answer to find. There is agreement that this number is so large that it is greater than the number of atoms visible in the observable universe. As the upcoming midterm elections approach, remember that when you were born, you won the lottery of life. The odds that you would be born were so unbelievably slight that you should feel lucky, like a winner, and be embolden to make the most of it. Remember it's possible to win.