1. United States
2. Calif.
3. Letter

Wealth inequality in this country has moved beyond anything the Gilded Age produced, and it's time to act. The richest 0.00001% of Americans now control more than double the share of total household wealth they held at the peak of the Gilded Age — and that gap is still widening. This isn't a trend. It's a structural collapse of democratic accountability. The mechanisms driving this are specific and fixable. Citizens United opened the floodgates to unlimited political spending, and figures like Elon Musk have poured hundreds of millions of dollars into elections to advance their own financial interests. Nearly $2 billion in dark, untraceable money circulated in the last federal election cycle alone. Meanwhile, anonymous shell companies and perpetual trusts let the ultra-wealthy hide and entrench their fortunes from regulators and the public alike. Teddy Roosevelt signed the Tillman Act in 1907 to stop exactly this kind of corruption. We need that same political will now. Support legislation to close dark money loopholes, restore meaningful campaign finance limits, and crack down on the financial secrecy tools that let a handful of billionaires operate above the law. Democracy doesn't survive oligarchy. Fix this.