An Open Letter To Elizabeth Warren About Trillionaires And Inequality

Submitted by QTR's Fringe Finance

Dear Senator Warren,

When I watched your recent video on X about Elon Musk becoming the world’s first trillionaire, I found myself in the unusual position of agreeing with you—at least in part. That is not a sentence I write often.

You see…you are correct that something has gone profoundly wrong in an economy that can produce a trillionaire. You are correct that the gap between the financial elite and ordinary Americans has become so vast that most people can barely comprehend it. And you are correct that millions of Americans increasingly feel as though the economy is rigged in favor of a small group of people at the top.

According to The Wall Street Journal, there are now roughly 430,000 American households worth more than $30 million, including approximately 74,000 households worth over $100 million. The growth of these groups has dramatically outpaced overall population growth over the past several decades.

You are correct that the wealth inequality gap is widening quickly:

Where I part ways with you is on the question of why.

You see Elon Musk’s wealth and conclude that the problem is Elon Musk. I see Elon Musk’s wealth and conclude that the problem is the system that made such wealth possible in the first place. Those are very different diagnoses, and they lead to very different solutions.

The irony is that I suspect we agree on more than either of us would like to admit. I do not believe it is healthy for today’s society to have trillionaires. When comparing Musk’s wealth to the next richest person on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, where the difference in rankings is $20 billion or so among the top 10 richest, there is a massive $800 billion difference. 40 times the average of the rest of the list. That should raise eyebrows.

I do not believe an economy is functioning normally when wealth accumulates on that scale. I do not believe it is sustainable for financial assets to appreciate so rapidly while wages struggle to keep pace. And despite being a Republican who has frequently defended markets, capitalism, and entrepreneurship, I find the emergence of this trillionaire fortune difficult to view as evidence of a healthy economic order.

But where you see a trillionaire problem, I see a monetary policy problem.

For years, Americans have been told a story about wealth inequality. The story goes something like this: billionaires are getting richer because they are hoarding wealth, exploiting workers, avoiding taxes, and accumulating ever greater control over the economy. There is some truth in parts of that narrative. Human nature has not changed. Powerful people have always sought more power, and wealthy people have always sought more wealth.

What the story leaves out, however, is...(READ THIS FULL LETTER 100% FREE HERE).