Billionaires Are Killing Us - Part One
Let’s be clear: billionaires are not a symbol of success. They are a symptom of a sick system. Wealth hoarding is a nationwide sickness, one that Wisconsin knows all too well.
Recent research and analysis prompted me to develop this three-part series exploring how billionaires amass wealth by fueling pollution, spreading disinformation, and manipulating our political system.
Part 1 exposes the powerful interests profiting from these harmful practices and why it matters to all of us. In a future installment, we’ll take a deeper dive into the growing trend of billionaires buying up farmland and what it could mean for our communities.
Sometimes I dream about becoming wealthy so that I can buy a warehouse and make it a safe place for kids, teens and homeless people. A place where all are welcome, and no one needs a dime to be fed and sheltered. But, at last, I am not greedy enough to become a billionaire. Because to obtain a billion dollars, one has to be complicit in the state of the world.
I’m not greedy enough to become a billionaire, because one doesn’t earn a billion dollars. It is extracted from the blood, sweat, and tears of the workers. Billionaires take from everything: our land, our water, our communities, and most importantly, our future. Billionaires accumulate wealth by participating in harm and calling it innovation, and then they protect it by funding politicians who keep people tired, divided, and underpaid.
Let’s be clear: billionaires are not a symbol of success. They are a symptom of a sick system. Wealth hoarding is a nationwide sickness, one that Wisconsin knows all too well.
Billionaires impact our water quality, air quality, wages, healthcare systems, media, elections, and future. And they do it without our consent.
Here’s why this conversation is urgent:
Billionaires control the resources we depend on: water, land, energy, data and housing. Their priority is profit, not community well‑being.
Billionaires shape our political reality. They fund the politicians who block climate legislation, suppress wages, weaken unions, and undermine democracy. They don’t just lobby, but they architect policy and thrive on our demise.
Billionaires manipulate the information we receive. When the people who own the media also own the corporations being criticized, the public is manipulated, and lies become perceived as truth. Distraction becomes a strategy. Division is their business model.
Billionaires profit from environmental destruction.
Billionaires extract from Wisconsin communities: our water, our labor, our land, our political landscape.
Billionaires rely on us being so overwhelmed that we can't fight back. When people are exhausted, underpaid, and under‑informed, it becomes easier for extreme wealth to operate unchecked.
Billionaires buy farms and sell the produce at a higher price.
Billionaires operate within a system that keeps power in the hands of a few while everyone else fights for scraps.
The Billionaires in Our Backyard
Wisconsin has its own billionaires, and their wealth is not neutral.
John Menard, Jr., built his empire by violating workers’ rights. Menard has been sued for deceptive advertising and for repeatedly forcing employees to work off the clock. This Wisconsin billionaire chose profit over people, every single time.
Diane Hendricks isthe largest political donor in Wisconsin. She is a conservative known for backing legislation meant to weaken unions and suppress wages. She benefits from public resources without paying her fair share.
Judy Faulkner of Epic Systemsruns one of the most powerful healthcare tech companies in the world, yet is widely criticized for creating closed‑off systems that create digital silos. When patient data can’t move, patients suffer, and competitors are locked out.
The Johnson Family of SC Johnson, a dynasty, was built on concentrated wealth and corporate influence in Racine, with limited equitable investment in the communities that fuel their profits. And the family’s legacy includes building unchecked power that only protects its own.
James Cargill II of the Cargill dynasty is tied directly to global deforestation, Indigenous land violations, and environmental degradation driven by Cargill’s global agribusiness operations. Cargill built their wealth on the destruction of ecosystems and communities.
Richard & Elizabeth Uihlein of Ulineare two of themost influential funders of election denial, far‑right extremism, and political polarization in Wisconsin and nationwide. Their money fuels movements that undermine democracy and target the very communities we fight to protect. These billionaires shape Wisconsin’s politics, economy, and environment, and are often at the expense of everyday people.
Billionaires Are Environmental Villains
The climate crisis is blatant, engineered, funded, and defended by people who profit from destruction.
Mike Wirth of Chevron runs one of the most polluting private companies on Earth.
Darren Woods of ExxonMobil began lying about climate change and the impact of oil companies over 40 years ago.
Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase has poured $317 billion into fossil fuels since the Paris Agreement.
Larry Fink of BlackRock sits on $87 billion in fossil fuel investments.
Charles Koch of Koch Industries is the kingpin of climate denial and political manipulation.
Mitch McConnell & Joe Manchin both use political power to block climate action while protecting fossil fuel profits.
These men aren’t just rich; they actively participate in environmental collapse and profit from the destruction of the planet our children will inherit.
Billionaires Control the Narrative
When billionaires own the news, they own the story—a story designed to protect their wealth.
Mark Zuckerberg, Rupert Murdoch, Jeff Bezos, and Elon Musk, to name a few, not only profit from the destruction of our climate but also perpetuate the unchecked spreading of mass misinformation. They weaponize the media to divide communities and deny science. They built their corporations on the exploitation of labor. These men shape what people believe, what people fear, and what people fight about while expanding their power, which is destroying us.
The problem isn’t just misinformation. The problem is that the news is owned by people who benefit from keeping us distracted, divided, and underinformed.
Billionaires Are Cultural Gatekeepers
People ask whether there are good billionaires. My answer is simple: No.
Even the ones with philanthropic branding exist inside an economic system that requires extraction from the many to enrich the few.
Entertainment billionaires profit from scarcity, inflated pricing, and the monetization of fandom.
Billionaire celebrities create and perpetuate economic inequality. They use marketing strategies to monetize parasocial relationships. Celebrity and entertainment billionaires' concentration of wealth deepens class divides, while dynamic pricing, ticket monopolies, and aggressive merchandise strategies siphon billions from middle- and lower-class fans.
Billionaire entertainers and media moguls have unparalleled cultural power. While some seem to shy away from “politics,” they indeed shape political discourse and normalize consumerism, sometimes at the expense of authentic community connection. High-profile billionaires and greedy corporations' control over entertainment, news, and social media platforms is argued to harm society by polarizing discourse, accelerating political division, and consolidating public narratives. Additionally, Billionaire entertainers and media moguls shape culture, politics, and public discourse in ways that normalize consumerism, individualism, and scarcity.
In essence, a billion dollars is not earned. It is taken. This isn’t accidental. It’s strategic. Culture becomes another pipeline for profit.
Billionaires aren’t just hoarding wealth; they’re hoarding our future.
Billionaires continue to get wealthier as they are draining our water, polluting our air, suppressing our wages, and shaping our politics in back rooms we’ll never be invited into. They’ve built entire empires on the labor, land, and lives of everyday people, and then had the audacity to tell us that they are the job creators.
But we see the extraction. We feel the consequences. And we know exactly who benefits when our communities are kept tired, divided, and underpaid.
I feel like the tides are shifting because we’re shifting them. Workers are organizing, neighbors are refusing to remain silent, we are boycotting the bullies, and whole communities are remembering their power. And when accountability comes, these billionaires will pretend they didn’t know, didn’t see, didn’t participate.
But we will remember!
We’ve been keeping receipts. And we will make sure the rest of the world remembers too.
The Call
This isn’t about envy. It’s about survival.
Extreme wealth is incompatible with democracy. Billionaires are not just individuals; they are systems, structures, and networks of power that shape our lives.
Wisconsin deserves better. Our communities deserve better. Our planet deserves better.
And we are building better together.
