If you are an aspiring billionaire entrepreneur and you are successful, be forewarned that 40% of Americans loathe billionaires, according to recently released research from The Harris Poll Thought Leadership Practice. The Poll offers new insight about how Americans think about both U.S. and global billionaires and their wealth—with a large portion (70%) strongly believing that billionaires have the responsibility to better society—and that they currently are not doing enough.
According to Forbes, there are 724 billionaires in the U.S. and the pandemic did not hamper them in achieving greater success. Globally, in 2021 there were a record 2,755 billionaires across 70 countries—that grew by over 30% from the 2,095 in 2020. That is just one year!
The Harris Poll identified a strong negative sentiment of the American public toward billionaires, with 58% resenting them particularly for their wealth accumulation during the pandemic.
Yet, the Harris Poll also reveals that 60% of adults in the U.S. aspire to be a billionaire and 44% feel they have access to the tools necessary to become one. For cryptocurrency investors that jumps to 71%.
While American’s traditionally admire economic success, the poll reveals concerns on a range of areas relating to wealth, as noted by Libby Rodney, futurist and chief strategy officer at The Harris Poll Thought Leadership Practice.
“The self-made journey of wealth accumulation has always been foundational to the American dream, once with millionaires and now billionaires,” Rodney said. “From an individual point of view, many Americans still want to become billionaires, but from a collective sensibility, the story is shifting as billionaires are being painted as a barrier to Americans achieving their personal dreams, while economic inequality grows to a national crisis point.”
According to the U.S. Federal Reserve, the gap of income inequality in America is now greatest. The top 1 percent of American households have a worth of nearly $43 trillion and it is greater than the total wealth of the lowest 90 percent of Americans. Those in the top 10 percent of households have a worth about $96 trillion, more than double that of the lower 90 percent.
The poll conducted on a nationally representative sample of nearly 2,000 American adults gave voice to wealth disparity and what the public expects of billionaires. Sixty-six per cent believe that economic inequality is now a national issue and 46% see billionaires as impediments to them achieving their American Dream. The latter is particularly felt by younger Americans with 59% of Gen Z and 58% of Millennials, 68% of LGBTQ and 58% of Asian.
While just over 60% in the poll view billionaires as being good for society, innovation and the economy, 49% feel that government should mandate philanthropic donations by billionaires. That type of strong action speaks to the passion for intervention from a portion of the American public who are disconnected from those having wealth.
“As our society continues to grow in two different directions, with the middle class disappearing, Americans are having a reckoning with wealth accumulation,” Rodney said. “Everyone wants wealth, but the idea now is that once you have it, you are now expected by the rest of society to act responsibly with it and leverage it for the good of the society.”
The research also delved into the major concern of Americans as to fairness in the areas of tax policy, inflation and the additional wealth that was accumulated by billionaires and millionaires during the pandemic—with 65% of Americans feeling billionaires do not pay their fair share of taxes. Accordingly, 66% of Americans believe that those holding extreme wealth should be taxed more heavily and 53% would impose those higher taxes at $1 billion or less of wealth.
Many billionaires in the U.S. have very public profiles who established foundations to support a range of social challenges such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Not only is the foundation pouring billions of dollars into causes, the foundation also established a collective of other billionaires who have agreed to give away a large portion of their wealth, rather than pass it along to their heirs.
The Harris Poll’s “Americans and Billionaires Survey“ is available now.
