In a world scorned by unprecedented inflation rates, a sky-high homeless population and unaffordable healthcare, a minority of the world’s citizens stand atop a mountain of incomprehensible wealth. These elitists boast enough assets to differentiate their economic standing among even the top 1% of the wealthy. Despite millionaires and billionaires sharing a well-cushioned title, people rarely grasp the vast monetary difference between them, underestimating the true magnitude of a billion dollars. One million seconds equals 11.5 days, while one billion seconds equals approximately 31 years and 8 months. Likewise, if a millionaire spent $1,000 each day, it would require under three years to expend their wealth. It would take billionaires 2,740 years. The possession of such magnitudes of wealth, without doubt, rests on the backs of numerous unspoken laborers, leads to financial inequality and, in turn, remains entirely unethical in the interests of human decency.

“America is supposed to be a democracy, not an oligarchy. The fact that they are single-handedly changing our world with paper — paper as in money — is ticking me off. They are very ignorant of the world. They destroy it and then try to go to another one to destroy that one too,” magnet freshmen Zoya Choudhry said.  

With a billion dollars, an individual would hold enough money to feed the homeless and the impoverished. For nuclear families with one older child, groceries on a moderate budget cost $13,248 per year; a billion dollars would pay for 75,483 years’ worth of groceries, or until the year 77,508 — disregarding price and inflation changes. As one in seven households in the U.S. battles food insecurity, not one of the 900 billionaires in America offers any reasonable excuse to neglect the thousands of Americans who suffer as they thrive. A severe lack of essential nutrition plagues the country; it seems unreasonable that the monetary resources exist but remain unused out of greed.

With a billion dollars, a person would own enough money to provide and maintain shelter on a mass scale. 771,480 people — over 306 times the population of NC — face homelessness in the U.S. Despite owning the assets to solve this, however, billionaires do squat diddly zilch. In New York City — known for its high cost of living — the median rent sits at $42,000 per year as of 2023. A billion dollars can pay for such housing for approximately 23,810 years.

With a billion dollars, healthcare could become accessible to those in need. Reaching unprecedented costs, healthcare in the U.S. costs an average of $14,570 per person. Unsurprisingly, three in ten adults claim to struggle, or know a person struggling, with affording healthcare. As such, approximately one-third of adults skipped or delayed paying for healthcare due to the steep rate. This concerning statistic places U.S. citizens’ health on the line, forcing individuals to choose between paying for groceries or health services. A billion dollars could cover this expense for 68,634 Americans.

Those in favor of billionaires defend wealthy individuals’ monetary advantages by emphasizing that their assets remain exactly that — theirs. In theory, the wealth of a person should not concern another, especially in terms of the allocation of their earnings. Unfortunately, not only does the hoarding of resources mock those in need, but the acquisition of such wealth commonly depends on the back-breaking work of laborers. Rather than toiling daily to produce their product, the affluent simply oversee the work as they severely underpay their workers. Thus, the issue with billionaires lies not merely in their ownership of wealth, but in the unethical gain of such assets as they leave scar after scar in a struggling and starved population. 

“I absolutely don’t think having that much money is ethical. To live comfortably, or even luxuriously, takes infinitely less money than what any billionaire has to their name. It makes me sick, to be entirely honest. They use the nonexistent concept of trickle-down economics to make themselves feel better about the pool of rotting greed they stew in. Yuck,” magnet senior Saffie Laposata said.