US Billionaire Wealth Surges to $8.1 Trillion as Affordability Crisis Hammers Working Class

Common Dreams highlights IPS’s January 2 billionaire wealth analysis, which found that the combined wealth of 935 U.S. billionaires surged to a staggering $8.1 trillion at the end of 2025.

“The affordability crisis is hitting ordinary Americans particularly hard as we head into the new year, but not everyone is feeling the pain: Billionaires are raking in staggering profits off the backs of ordinary workers,” said Chuck Collins. “These extreme concentrations of wealth and power undermine our daily lives and further rig our economy in favor of the ultra-rich and corporations, while ordinary Americans get a raw deal once again.”

IPS released its analysis days after Bloomberg reported, based on its Billionaires Index, that the world’s 500 richest people gained a record $2.2 trillion in wealth last year.

Omar Ocampo, an IPS researcher, said that in the US, billionaires are “paying far less in taxes compared to the huge amount of wealth they amass,” allowing them to continue accumulating vast fortunes, supercharging inequality, and using their wealth and influence to subvert reform efforts.

“Not only are a small number of Americans holding more wealth than the rest of America, but they’re also not paying their fair share in taxes,” said Ocampo.

Read the full article in Common Dreams.