Wealthier, yes. But meaningfully wealthier? Money buys power and the political economy is zero sum, so: concentration of wealth -> concentration of power -> mo

Wealthier, yes. But meaningfully wealthier? Money buys power and the political economy is zero sum, so: concentration of wealth -> concentration of power -> most people lose power -> most people's lives get worse. And wealth has become much more concentrated. Consider that in the US: * billionaires increased their wealth by ~$5T during the pandemic [1] * the top 1% own ~30% of wealth and the top .1% own ~13% of wealth [2] * unlimited election spending by corporations and labor unions has been legal since 2010 [3] * in FY2018, the top ten Fortune 100 companies receiving the most federal funding achieved an ostensible ROI on lobbying of 100,000% [4] The trend is only picking up speed. [1] https://www.oxfam.org/en/press-releases/ten-richest-men-double-their-fortunes-pandemic-while-incomes-99-percent-humanity https://www.oxfam.org/en/press-releases/ten-richest-men-doub... [2] https://www.statista.com/statistics/203961/wealth-distribution-for-the-us/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/203961/wealth-distributi... [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizens_United_v._FEC https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizens_United_v._FEC [4] https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamandrzejewski/2019/05/14/how-the-fortune-100-turned-2-billion-in-lobbying-spend-into-400-billion-of-taxpayer-cash/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamandrzejewski/2019/05/14/how...