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Chuck Collins gave away a fortune — literally. When he was in his 20s, the heir to the Oscar Mayer fortune gave away his millions to progressive political causes. Now a resident of Guilford, Vermont, Collins has spent his life fighting inequality and exposing how the rich make themselves richer at everyone else’s expense.
In his new book, The Wealth Hoarders: How Billionaires Pay Millions to Hide Trillions, Collins details how the rich deploy a secret army of bankers, lawyers, wealth managers, accountants and consultants that he dubs “the Wealth Defense Industry.” He knows these people. They were the advisers who told him that he was a fool for giving away his money. He did it over their objections.
“This hidden wealth system is really undermining … healthy democratic society,” says Collins, who is director of the Program on Inequality at the Institute for Policy Studies. “In the U.S. we are … building our own oligarchy of inherited wealth dynasties and that fundamentally puts us on a collision course with democratic institutions and norms. It’s not just about avoiding taxes. It’s really about avoiding accountability and enabling these huge inequalities to fester and grow.”
