Almost 60 percent of billionaire wealth is derived from one of these sources: inheritance, corruption, cronyism, or monopoly power. Trillions are being gifted in inheritance in particular, creating a new aristocratic oligarchy that exerts immense power in our economy, politics and our society.

Our deeply unequal world has a long history of colonial domination, which has largely benefited the richest people. The poorest, racialized people, as well as women and marginalized groups have and continue to be systematically exploited at huge human cost.

Billionaires create monopoly corporations who largely control markets, set the rules, fix lowest possible salaries for workers and gobble up all the profits.

With monopolies tightening their stranglehold on industries, billionaires have seen their wealth skyrocket to unprecedented levels. About 18 percent of the world’s billionaire’ wealth is from monopoly power.

For example, Jeff Bezos who has built the Amazon Empire to an unprecedented levels. It accounts for 80% or more of online purchases in Spain, France and Germany while it accounts for 38% of all e-commerce sales in the U.S.

According to Oxfam, for the first time in 2023–more new billionaires got rich through inheritance than through entrepreneurship. All of the world’s billionaires younger than 30 inherited their wealth. In next three decades the world will see over 1,000 of today’s billionaires transfer more than $5.2 trillion to their heirs. Oxfam calculates that 36 percent of billionaire wealth comes from inheritance.

Worse still, this transfer will be largely untaxed. Oxfam’s analysis shows that two-thirds of countries don’t tax inheritance to direct descendants at all. Half the world’s billionaires live in countries with no inheritance tax on the money they will give to their children when they die.

The idea that extreme wealth is a reward for extreme talent is pervasive and strongly reinforced in our media and popular culture. This is a lie perpetrated by the billionaires who control the media.

Inheritance transfers of wealth aren’t taxed in America – depriving the government of billions of dollars which could be used to fund healthcare, housing, schools and colleges.

Unfortunately, the U.S. population is deceived by the corporate controlled media. U.S. elections are controlled by money coming from billionaires. That is why they have misguidedly elected a president of and for billionaires.

Only 40 years ago, there were 50 companies in charge of most American media. Today, 90% of the media in the United States is controlled by just six corporations: AT&T, CBS, Comcast, Disney, Newscorp and Viacom. This means that just 232 media executives are controlling vast majority of the information we are presented with, amounting to a net worth of over $430 billion. Do you think these billionaires would allow any news or narrative that affects their wealth and power? No, never.

People across the globe, especially in poor countries—who are the least reponsible for creating the climate crisis–are facing dangerous climate change events, such as severe hurricanes, flash floods, and wildfires because billionaires are making climate change rapidly worse by their lifestyle. In fact, 125 of the world’s richest billionaires invest so much money in polluting industries which emit an average of 3 million carbon tons a year. The more they invest in fossil fuels, the more they protect the use of them, no matter how much the rest of the world suffers in response.

The rising levels of global inequality is dangerous and unacceptable: It is time for more billionaire-busting policies. Wide-ranging increases in taxation of the super-rich is called for and the governments of the world should force the multi-millionaires and billionaires to pay their fair share of the taxes.

So what should be done? First of all, do not believe anything what mainstream news media says on TV as well as on major newspapers and magazines. Question everything you see, read and listen on main outlets. Try to look for and read alternative progressive news papers and magazines and TV outlets. We must educate ourselves on what is good for the majority of the people.

Support and elect progressive, socially aware candidates for elected office from the president to senators and congressmen/women; people like Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who believe in Democratic Socialism, a system that is fair for the majority of the people in this country.

Join as many protest rallies across the nation as possible. Question your senator and congressman in townhall meetings. Remember, our elected leaders are necessarily not great people. They are ordinary people who just ran for the erlection, said the right thing to please the people who voted for them; like Donald Trump promised stopping the Ukrain War in one day, he would bring the prices down in few days, and many more false promises. None of them he kept so far.

Also, buy local. As far as possible, avoid buying from big corporations such as Amazone, Walmart etc. Buy from the family-owned small businesses. Frequent small family restaurants, not big chain restaurants.

In other words, we the people have the power which has been snatched away from us by the multimillionaires and the billionaires colluding with our corrupt politicians. If we unite, we can take it back.

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Chaitanya Davé is an engineer and a businessman. He has authored three books: CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY: A Shocking Record of US Crimes since 1776-2007, COLLAPSE: Civilization on the Brink-2010, CAPITALISM’S MARCH OF DESTRUCTION: Replacing it with People and Nature-Friendly Economy. Author of many articles on politics, history, and the environment. Founder/President of a non-profit charity foundation helping the poor villagers of India, Nepal, Haiti, USA-homeless and other poor countries. He can be contacted at [email protected].

He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

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