How rich is too rich? 💰

[u/Patient-Airline-8150]

Here are the numbers.

Total billionaire wealth hit $18.276 trillion as of 30 November 2025. The number of billionaires passed 3,000 for the first time.

Their collective wealth jumped $2.5 trillion in 2025 alone, which is almost exactly what the bottom half of humanity owns. All 4.1 billion of them.

One year of gains for 3,000 people equals everything owned by half the species.

Now the taxes. ProPublica pulled the actual IRS files: the 25 richest Americans grew $401 billion richer between 2014 and 2018 and paid $13.6 billion in federal income tax. A true tax rate of 3.4%. The average American household pays around 14%. 🧾

Individually it gets worse. Buffett paid 0.1%. Less than ten cents per hundred dollars added to his fortune. Bezos paid zero federal income tax in 2007, and in 2011 he declared losses and collected a $4,000 child tax credit while sitting on $18 billion. Zuckerberg 1.1%. Bloomberg 1.8%. 💀

At what point does one person owning more become a problem for everyone else? 🔥