Burned By Billionaires

Order from The New Press with discount code BBB30 to get 30 percent off! Chuck will be also doing a series of book events this fall, both in person and online. Find more info about events here, or contact Jamie McGonagill if you’re interested in hosting one.

Even if you don’t begrudge the ultra-rich their multiple vacation homes, fancy boats, and private jets, the truth is that billionaire power touches you — where you live, what you pay for housing, what you eat, and what news you consume. In this explosive new book, Chuck Collins, a leading scholar of economic inequality, chronicles how the actions of the top .01% have severe consequences for the rest of us. 

Burned by Billionaires: How Concentrated Wealth and Power Are Ruining Our Lives and Planet by Chuck Collins, a senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies is a scathing exposé of the hidden impact of America’s ultra wealthy on our social, economic, political, and ecological landscape — as well as a path toward a more equitable future.

Illustrating with humorous cartoons and shocking graphics how we are all “burned by billionaires,” Collins demonstrates how the über-wealthy have rigged tax policies in their favor, shifting costs onto working people while reducing public funding for schools, roads, and other essential infrastructure. In a world of have-yachts and have-nots, billionaire travel habits are literally burning up the planet, with private jets and boats the size of apartment buildings pumping disproportionate amounts of carbon into our atmosphere. 

The wealthiest people’s investments in luxury skyscrapers and hoarding of residential real estate are shrinking the pool of affordable housing, pushing the American dream out of reach for many families.  Acquisitions of health care by venture capitalists are causing hospitals to close and even the cost of your dog’s trip to the vet to skyrocket.

Perhaps worst of all, this concentration of wealth and power is leading to oligarchic capture of our government by a few extraordinarily wealthy people — Elon Musk being only the most flagrant example — thereby undermining the democratic principle that our votes matter equally.  

Against this picture of rising inequality, Collins offers concrete prescriptions for how we can take power back from the billionaire class, creating a society of universal abundance instead of abundant inequality.

Praise for “Burned by Billionaires”

“Clear and punchy—a strong spur to action.” — Arlie Russell Hochschild, author of Stolen Pride: Loss, Shame, and the Rise of the Right

“Skillfully illustrates the ways that excessive concentrations of wealth supercharge racial divides and undermine our lives at every turn.” — Darrick Hamilton, professor of economics and urban policy and founding director of The Institute on Race, Power, and Political Economy at The New School

“Collins makes the case that wealth is power and shows how that power is distorting American democracy to the detriment of us all.” — Jeffrey A. Winters, professor of political science at Northwestern University and author of The Blind Spot: How Oligarchs Dominate Our Democracy

“An electrifying call to action…. Should be required reading for all our elected representatives.” — Brooke Harrington, professor of sociology at Dartmouth College and author of Offshore: Stealth Wealth and the New Colonialism

“Utterly readable, totally infuriating, and packed with insight.” — Erica Payne, founder and president of Patriotic Millionaires and co-author of Tax the Rich: How Lies, Loopholes, and Lobbyists Make the Rich Even Richer

Save 30 percent off with the code “BBB30.”