Marty Levine
January 7, 2025
Perhaps all I need to post is the title of a recently released study from the Institute for Policy Studies to make my point : Richest 15 U.S. centi-billionaires see wealth surge 33 percent to $3.2 trillion. The wealthiest among us continue to get even wealthier, as “affordability” has become the central focus of our political leaders. For progressives, affordability describes the problem facing so many around us, a problem not being addressed by the current administration. For MAGA folks, the word is a hoax, denying President Trump the victory lap he thinks he deserves.
The details behind this IPS’s report title are numbing.
The top five current billionaires and their individual wealth on January 1, 2026, compared to January 1, 2025:
Elon Musk of Tesla/X and SpaceX with $726 billion, up from $421 billion a year ago.
Larry Page of Google, with $257 billion, up from $156 billion a year ago.
Larry Ellison of Oracle fame with $245 billion, up from $209 billion a year ago.
Jeff Bezos of Amazon with $242 billion, up from $233.5 billion a year ago.
Sergey Brin of Google has a net worth of $237 billion, up from $148.9 billion a year ago.
The wealth of just 5 men has increased in one year by $327.7 BILLION! That’s in one year.
The Institute further told us that the gains are even more staggering if we just look back 5 years.
On March 18, 2020, Elon Musk had wealth valued just under $25 billion. Less than five years later, at the end of 2025, Musk’s wealth is $726 billion, a dizzying 2,800 percent increase from before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Jeff Bezos saw his wealth rise from $113 billion on March 18, 2020 to $242 billion at the end of 2025.
Three Walton family members –Jim, Alice and Rob, saw their combined assets increase from $161.1 billion on March 18, 2020 to $378 billion at the end of 2025.
To place this level of wealth in a context that makes it more than just a big (a very big) number, it is important to recognize that the median net worth of our total population is $192,900. That is, 0.00059% of growth in wealth in the last year of just the 5 wealthiest men in our nation.
We don’t need more data to let us recognize how excessive this gain is. It has nothing to do with ensuring that the wealthy can afford their housing needs, or to ensure they can put food on their table, or if they can be sure they can get the medical care they need. They already had much more than what life requires, even if you wish to live lavishly.
I think about how luxuriant, as I approach my 80th birthday, my life is. I am living so much better than my parents did when they were raising me. They never owned a home and lived a very frugal life. I am blessed to be living in a very comfortable condominium looking out over Lake Michigan with the Chicago Skyline on the far horizon. I can fly off in days to visit my grandchildren in California and just weeks later embark on an adventure to Antarctica. I don’t worry about having enough to eat, or affording medical care, meeting my transportation needs, or being properly clothed. These are things that always seemed to be worries for my parents.
And I live well, having a level of wealth that is just an infinitesimal fraction of the billionaire class. Looking at all my assets, I have less than 0.5% of the people who have $1 billion; I have 0.0007% of Elon Musk’s wealth.
So how much does any one person need?
And perhaps the better question is: How much do they deserve?
