Chuck Collins is not a household name, and I had not heard of him until recently.*1 But his new (2025) book, Burned by Billionaires (BbB) is an excellent work that is especially pertinent now, as for the first time a billionaire occupies the White House and has surrounded himself with fellow billionaires and “centi-millionaires” (people whose net worth is over $100 million).
Collins was “born on third base,” as he says
in an earlier book.*2 He is the great‑grandson of Oscar F. Mayer,
the meat‑packing magnate. In 1985 (when he was 26), Chuck inherited roughly
$500,000 from his family’s Oscar Mayer fortune. That same year, he donated the
entire amount to foundations and community organizations. He later left to live
in a commune.
When his father, a libertarian
conservative, learned of what Chuck had done, he said he was afraid his son had
become a Marxist. Chuck responded by saying that he would rather be called
a “Gandhian or Christian.”*3 He explained that he didn’t
want to spend his life “managing inherited wealth” and that giving it away
freed him to pursue community organizing and economic‑justice work.
Collins is now widely known for his
work exposing how wealth is accumulated, hidden, and protected in the U.S. He
says in the Introduction of BbB “The drive by billionaires to amass ever
greater wealth is warping the nonprofit sector, dictating what’s on your dinner
plate, and shaping the news you consume.”
How Concentrated Wealth and Power are
Ruining Our Lives and Planet
is the subtitle of BbB. Collins writes, “With their inordinate wealth
and power, billionaires are hijacking our political system with their campaign
contributions, paid lobbyists, communication firms, and dark money
contributions."
I cannot even introduce here the important
chapters in this book, but I strongly recommend reading it. It is a bit pricey
to buy, but many public libraries likely have it. (There are several copies in the
various Kansas City metro libraries.)
“An Agenda to Reduce Billionaire Power and Improve Our Lives” is the
title of the final chapter before the Conclusion, and it includes four major
topics with about two dozen subtopics. They are all good suggestions, but they
are not very helpful regarding what we ordinary “peons” can do—other than vote
for legislators who do have power to follow those suggestions.
At the end of the Conclusion, Collins offers this advice: “Get your
information from sources that are not owned and controlled by billionaires.”
That is one small thing I did before reading Collins’ book: I quit subscribing
to and reading The Washington Post. In doing that, I was following the
actions of Jen Rubin, who was the leading opinion article writer of the Post.
In protest to a Jeff Bezos directive in 2025, Rubin left her prominent
position and became co-founder of an online publication called “The
Contrarian,” which I now read daily. That Substack blog, which started with the
tagline “Not owned by anybody,” now has nearly 500,000 subscribers. She allows
“tightwads” like me read it for free, and here is a link if you would like to
try it out: The
Contrarian | Substack.
Ever since the One Big Beautiful (=Ugly) Bill was signed into law on
July 4, 2025, I have been concerned about the growing
control of billionaires and the extremely wealthy over American life—and
incensed that financial resources continue to flow upward to those who need
them least, while the poor suffer even more.
That bill delivered $1 trillion in tax cuts to the top 1% of
taxpayers, while cutting roughly $1 trillion from Medicaid and SNAP—programs
used by the poorest Americans. Nearly half of those tax cuts went to the top
0.1% of earners.
And consider who the POTUS took with him to China last week: 17 CEOs,
several of whom were billionaires. Why were they in his entourage? Mainly because
of the donations they had made to Trump. Several of them had previously donated
$1 million or more to his inaugural fund. So, the president took them along so
they could negotiate with China on behalf of their own business interests. The
appearance of a quid pro quo is hard to miss.
It is also hard to miss the judgmental words of the prophet Amos, pronouncing
woe on the wealthy who “trample on the needy and destroy the poor of the land”
(8:4, CEB)—and it is easy to see that Chuck Collins is a present-day Amos.
_____
*1 The cover of
the December issue of Sojourners magazine was emblazoned with the words
“The Big Steal,” and the cover story was on “The Wealth Extractors: Billionaires
are upending our lives and our economy.” It featured an interview of Collins by
Julie Polter, the editor of Sojourners.
*2 Collins previously
authored a book titled Born on Third Base: A One Percenter Makes the Case
for Tackling Inequality, Bringing Wealth Home, and Committing to the Common
Good (2016). The main title is said to be the words of Barry Switzer, the
famous football coach, but they were not original with him.
*3 Collins has
been a lifelong member of the Unitarian Universalist Church.
Note: Research and wording assistance was provided by Claude (Anthropic A.I.).
