Despite numerous statements that the authorities of rich industrialized countries care about their populations, the process of a very small group of billionaires accumulating enormous wealth continues.
At the same time, dramatic international events are actively exploited by the rich to further increase their fortunes. For example, according to Oxfam calculations, the profits of oil companies during the war with Iran grew by more than $400 million per day (reported by Asharq Al-Awsat on June 15, 2026). As Oxfam Executive Director Amitabh Behar noted, conflicts destroy countries and take countless lives, but at the same time bring enormous benefits to a small group of people. This is a cruel system that redistributes wealth in favor of the rich.
The G7 countries reduced their development assistance budgets to other states by $48 billion over the past year. This amount, according to Oxfam, is equivalent to the wealth accumulated by billionaires from the G7 countries in just 9 days.
Recently, the term “ultra-rich,” i.e., people with colossal fortunes, is being used increasingly.
According to Bloomberg, June 15 was an outstanding day for the world’s richest people, as the 500 richest individuals earned a record $336 billion in a single day. As a result, their combined wealth reached $13.3 trillion. This major gain was made possible by the rise in stock indices following reports of a peace deal between the United States and Iran. With this news, the US Dow Jones index rose 0.9% and set a historical high.
All this is causing discontent, if not fury, among young people. The Washington Post ran a special program on June 15, 2026, stating that the generation born in the 21st century (“Generation Z”) has become disillusioned with capitalism. At the same time, young people most often express concern about unregulated capitalism, highlighting problems such as wealth inequality, environmental damage, and so on.
Such sentiments are fueled by studies on how the super-rich avoid paying taxes. On June 8, Bloomberg published a major report stating that in the United States, the top 1% of the richest benefit the most from tax loopholes, costing the country $48 billion.
This kind of discontent is particularly reflected in the growing popularity of the new mayor of New York, Zohran Mamdani. Recently, 32-year-old Democratic Socialist Darializa Avila Chevalier, a candidate for Congress from New York’s 13th district, is confidently moving toward victory in the primaries.
A new sign of the influence of democratic socialists was Mamdani supporter Lewis George’s victory in the Democratic Party primaries for the position of Mayor of Washington. She became the first democratic socialist to win the mayoral election in the nation’s capital, Washington, marking a sharp political shift after decades of centrist rule (the vast majority of voters in the district are Democrats, making the primaries extremely important for the city).
Mamdani’s authority has grown significantly, as he managed to fulfill his campaign promise and freeze rent prices for 1 million apartments in New York.
Growing criticism of the ultra-rich
America as a whole is approaching its 250th anniversary with uncertainty about its own strength and greatness. The number of people who say they are proud of their country has decreased noticeably. Only half of respondents answer this question affirmatively. According to polls, 67% of college students express a positive attitude toward socialism. The number of Democratic Party members who identify as democratic socialists has grown significantly; their ranks now exceed 110 members, and 172 candidates endorsed by democratic socialists have won elections at various levels, including the mayor of Seattle, the largest city in the Northwest. As a rule, all figures who call themselves democratic socialists are highly critical of Israel.
Two years ago, America was shocked by the open murder of Brian Thompson, the CEO of a health insurance company. His killer, Luigi Mangione, was portrayed by some media outlets almost as a national hero, since a huge number of ordinary Americans suffer from the imperfect healthcare system. Notably, the investigation has been ongoing for more than a year and a half, with the trial scheduled only for this fall. The defendant’s lawyers are putting forward various arguments for his justification, claiming that he was in a state of severe emotional distress (as reported by CNN on June 17, 2026).
The arrest of a fraudster with a fortune of $3.7 billion, earned through fraud in the Medicare program — the American medical insurance program for people aged 65 and older, as well as for young people with disabilities — caused considerable public stir in America.
The world’s first trillionaire
The fact that Elon Musk became the world’s first trillionaire in mid-June 2026 caused a strong reaction among the US population. Even the New York Times noted on June 21 that the fortune of the first billionaire, Rockefeller, amounted to 1.5% of the US annual GDP, while Musk’s wealth already exceeds 3% of GDP.
The American press quite often refers to the great Greek philosopher Plato (427–347 BC), who asserted in “Laws” that if someone acquires wealth more than four times greater than that of the poorest citizens, they should donate the surplus to the city (not 5 million times more, as with Musk, but only four times).
A person consumed by insatiable desires begins to love himself much more than the rest of humanity. Plato’s concerns about insatiable greed are confirmed by Musk’s desire to reach 10 trillion. He essentially confirmed Plato’s conclusions about the moral shortcomings of the ultra-rich by characterizing empathy as a fundamental weakness of Western civilization.
Plato understood perfectly that ideal solutions, such as the 4-to-1 wealth ratio he proposed, cannot be implemented where enormous inequality already exists. But he did not call on legislators and citizens to give up in surrender; on the contrary, he encouraged citizens (including the few rich people with a sense of justice) to do everything possible to equalize society, starting with shaming those who possess excessive wealth.
Only by teaching the vices of extreme greed can society begin to restore the healthy balance of wealth necessary for a prosperous republic.
The American press is making considerable efforts to prove to public opinion the unshakable nature of the concept of inequality and the absolute necessity of the existence of both rich and poor in society.
The well-known political scientist Fareed Zakaria, writing for The Washington Post, believes that attacks on the rich should not simply be actively rejected, but that those who hold other views should be opposed. He wrote that liberals should love markets not because they help the rich dominate or inequality to grow, but because genuine competition allows the ordinary person to challenge the strong. It is no coincidence that his article is titled “To Beat Socialists and Populists, Liberalism Must Get Radical.”
In the US media, there are continuous attempts to undermine the referendum scheduled for November in California on seizing 5% of all assets from every billionaire residing in the state. A multitude of arguments are presented that high taxes on the income of the rich in developed countries have proven ineffective. Moreover, this increases the likelihood of their relocation to other, more comfortable places of residence (CNN, The New York Times, and The Washington Post are particularly active in this regard).
President Trump reminded everyone at the end of June that class struggle in America continues. In his Truth Social network, he stated that communism is the main threat to America. He accused the radical left (whom he calls communists) of seeking to change the traditional American way of life, including attitudes toward religion and social values. He called communism the greatest threat to the United States since its founding 250 years ago.
Mohammed Amer, Syrian publicist, expert on current issues of global and regional politics
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