As Billionaires Grow Wealthier, Where Does That Leave the Rest of Us?

Every spring, Forbes takes great pleasure in a bit of billionaire porn, revealing the state of affairs for the rich of this world. World’s Billionaires List: The Richest in 2025. It is capitalism’s answer to awards season, a glossy roll call of massive gold opulence. And while Forbes is hardly a bastion of socialist critique, even they seem genuinely stunned by the sheer scale of wealth accumulation this year.

“A record 3,028 people around the globe make Forbes’s annual World’s Billionaires list this year,” wrote senior editor Chase Peterson-Withorn. “They’re worth a record $16.1 trillion in all—$2 trillion more than a year ago and more than the GDP of every country in the world besides the US and China.” In the US, there are 89 more billionaires on the 2025 list than on the 2024 list, and in 12 months, the combined wealth of US billionaires increased by approximately $1.1 trillion (from $5.7 trillion to $6.8 trillion). That represents a robust 19.3 percent increase, while in the same period, the US economy grew by only 2 percent.

American billionaires' combined wealth equals the third- or fourth-largest economy on Earth. If they were a country, their $6.8 trillion would put them on par with Germany and Japan. The economy is a pie, so if some individuals are accumulating a combined $6.8 trillion, with a $1.1 trillion annual increase, that means that others experienced comparatively less growth in the same period. This is what the Gini Index measures. The Gini Index is a metric that tracks inequality on a scale from perfect equality (0) to absolute inequality (1).

Here's what that means: In a country with a zero score, every resident would have the exact same net worth. And in a country with a score of 1, the entire wealth would be concentrated in the hands of one single individual.

Currently, New York City Gini Index is at a glistening 0.55. That’s similar to countries in economic crisis—or in denial. That number places New York above Zimbabwe and Brazil and just shy of South Africa, the most unequal nation on Earth. New York City is home to 110 billionaires, making it the city with the most billionaires in the world, according to Forbes. New York has all the architectural presence of a global capital—and the disparity of an emerging economy. But it’s not always visible. The glass towers shine, and the renderings always feature greenery. Meanwhile, a third of the city experiences housing instability.

This is one of the complexities of the 21st century: growth alongside transition, new development alongside shifting communities, and wealth alongside structural challenges. Our housing issues don’t stem from a lack of construction—they reflect questions about what we build, and who it’s intended to serve.

Consider One57, at 157 W. 57th St., one of the glimmering sentinels of Billionaires’ Row. It’s 8:37am on a Monday, and the doorman stands beneath a chandelier-style marquee that probably cost more than a studio apartment in Queens. The elevator hums softly in the lobby behind him, ready to ascend to units owned by LLCs with poetic names such as “Cloud Central Ltd. Partnership” on the 81st floor. The elevator rarely goes anywhere. Residents don't actually . . . reside there. The doorman spends much of his shift greeting no one. It is, in its own way, the loneliest job in luxury real estate. This is not just real estate. It’s a vertical monument to inequality, a $2.3 billion ghost town that provides a safe deposit box with a solid return on investment. (The $2.3 billion figure is based on an estimated 92 residential units, an average size of 4,000 square feet per unit, and an average sale price of $6,300 per square foot. The total estimated sales at One57 amount to approximately $2.32 billion.)

The Forbes list, for all its pomp, offers a kind of accidental clarity. In a world where the top 15 billionaires could buy every rent-stabilized apartment in New York City and still have enough cash left for naming rights on Penn Station (might this be the way to fund its desperately needed improvements?!), we are forced to ask: Is this really a functioning economy? Or is it simply a marketplace for the extraction and consolidation of wealth?

There are ways to turn this around. Sweden, for example, redistributes nearly 50 percent of its national income through taxes and public investment, all while maintaining a dynamic and resilient economy (in comparison, the US redistributes 30 percent of its national income). In New York, we already have a tool kit—public housing, Mitchell-Lama programs, preservation of rent-regulated units, and strong affordability mandates; we just need to use it at scale. Tackling housing costs means protecting what is still affordable, not just approving new towers with trickle-down promises. Housing isn't the only issue. Healthcare and insurance costs require deep structural reform, too.

The Gini is out of the box—it’s circling the block looking for the last bit of public land to privatize. But we can pass policies that actually even the scales, no renderings needed.

Community activist Layla Law-Gisiko, formerly the head of the land use committee of Community Board 5 when it was formulating a plan for Penn Station, is currently president of the City Club of New York. She previously ran for a West Side Assembly seat in the Democratic primary in 2022.