Like most Americans, I enter 2026 concerned about our billionaires. Are they happy? Are their dreams being realized? Are they living in the kind of extravagant comfort to which they’re entitled?

It keeps me up at night.

The year that just ended was a fantastic one for the superwealthy. Forbes described it like this: “Over the past year, the planet has added more than 340 new billionaires ‒ roughly one per day ‒ across the U.S., China, India, Russia and places as far and wide as St. Kitts and Nevis and Albania.

"There are now more billionaires than ever before: a record 3,148, up nearly 50% over the past five years. In 1987, when Forbes published the first ever international ranking, we found just 140 billionaires around the globe.

"And the billionaire population is richer than ever before, too ‒ both in total ($18.7 trillion, up by $10 trillion since 2020) and on average ($5.9 billion, versus $4 billion back then). A record 19 people are now centibillionaires, having amassed fortunes of at least $100 billion; only one, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, was that rich six years ago.”

What a blessing that 2025 was such a banner year for those more fortunate than us. Bloomberg reported that the world’s 500 richest people “added a record $2.2 trillion to their collective fortunes in 2025.”

But with 2025 ending on........

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