Illuminate

DIAGNOSTIC OVERVIEW
Billionaireism is a severe socio-psychological condition characterized by compulsive wealth accumulation far beyond functional human need, accompanied by severe empathy erosion, narcissism, grandiose self-justification, and chronic detachment from ordinary human consequences.
Individuals exhibiting billionaireistic traits often demonstrate a persistent belief that:
- personal wealth reflects intrinsic superiority
- social systems exist primarily to preserve their status
- human suffering is an acceptable externality of “innovation”
- democratic or ethical constraints are obstacles to optimization

FIFA just set the price of a top-tier World Cup Final ticket at $33,000. That would buy enough school lunches to feed 29 hungry kids every day for their entire K-12 career.

According to the RAND Corporation, the bottom 90% of Americans would have earned about $65–70 trillion more in 2026 dollars if postwar income growth had remained broadly shared, as it was until the mid-1970s. Since then, decisions by Congress and successive administrations, shaped by business interests, changed tax, labor, and regulatory rules to funnel more growth to the top.

If we hadn’t invaded Iraq, which had nothing to do 9/11, we’d have saved $4–5 trillion*, enough to fund the entire Social Security program for two years. (And we wouldn’t have killed ~1 million innocent civilians.)
*adjusted for inflation

As of the end of March 2026, the U.S. has spent ~$25 billion* in the Iran war. For this amount we could dramatically expand community-based veterans’ healthcare access.
• Issue ≈1.5M community care vouchers — $12B
• Build ≈150 outpatient clinics — $6B
• Staff and fund mental health/substance use disorder programs for 3 years — $3B
• Deliver ≈10–15M rural rides + ≈4–6M telehealth visits (3 yrs) — $2B
• Modernize VA IT + scheduling — $1B
• Fund care coordination/admin (claims processing, audits) for 3 years — $1B
Source: Center for American Progress

The Pentagon estimates spending $800m–$1B daily ongoing in Iran. On average, that’s enough to build 5–7 new hospitals. Per day.

The U.S. ranks 48th globally in life expectancy. That’s last among major industrialized nations.

Federal, state, and local lobbying exceeded $15 billion in 2024.
This would fund disability payments for as many as 900,000 veterans for a year.

The U.S. spends about twice as much on healthcare per person as other wealthy nations, but has:
• lower life expectancy
• higher infant mortality
• higher maternal mortality
• more chronic disease
It also leads peer countries in preventable deaths.

The U.S. typically ranks between 30th and 60th globally on health—and near the bottom among wealthy nations.
(Sources: Bloomberg Global Health Index, Legatum Prosperity Health Pillar, World Health Organization)

The war in Iran is costing taxpayers approximately $1.43 billion per day. If it lasts a year, we will spend enough to provide health insurance for 58 million Americans. #NUMBERS (Source: Center for Strategic and International Studies)

The war in Iran is costing taxpayers approximately $1.43 billion per day — enough to provide health insurance for 58 million Americans for a full year. #NUMBERS (Source: Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)
If you cut the military budget by $500 billion, you’d have an extra $10,000/year to spend on programs, equipment, facilities, resources, and meals for each public school student in the United States. And you’d still have the largest military in the world. By a large margin.
#NUMBERS

Beginning with Ronald Reagan, and adjusting for inflation, how much money do you think has been lost to the United States in tax cuts for the wealthy? Methodologies vary, but the best estimate is $15-22 trillion. Keep this in mind the next time you propose feeding children or paying teachers or universal healthcare and somebody asks “how are you going to pay for that?”

Imagine you and your 10 best friends were born the same year as Jesus. And somehow you’re all still around.
Every day of your lives you each made $100,000.
Today, the 11 of you combined have significantly less money than Elon Musk.
If we imposed a 2% wealth tax on billionaires, we could triple the number of Small Business Administration loans each year.

Google has pledged $50 million over five years to combat climate super- pollutants. This comes to ~3 hours of the company’s 2025 profit.#NUMBERS

