There are two types of billionaires in America, which are, those that are personally worth over one billion dollars, as well as corporations that consistently have yearly profits of one billion dollars or more. These two entities, more times than not, are often one and the same, and/or work together, to influence the government, politics, and laws, in a manner that they will allow them to continue to benefit to the exclusion of all those that do not have that same sort of cash-rich influence.
The most important thing to remember about the superrich is that the one thing that they are not, are gamblers. The superrich only want to deal with sure things and one way to assure themselves of having that security of a sure thing is to make sure that those that apply the law, as well as those that implement or influence tax policies, along with all else of meaningful material substance, must be in harmony with their desires, and if so, those that work those policies, will have job security.
To get even a small fathoming of how much money is involved when it comes to the superrich it is of vital importance to recognize, for example, that in 2015, Apple made 53.39 billion dollars in net profit; in 2016 Apple made 45.69 billion dollars in net profit; and in 2017 Apple made 48.35 in net profit. All of these billions of dollars of profits, is not something that Apple wants to risk in any way, form, or manner; of which, such a yearly consistency shown by these gargantuan profits, indicates that Apple indeed is not at risk.
In regards to individuals, time.com, estimates that Jeff Bezos of Amazon, is worth 109.9 billion dollars, of which, that amount of money, in conjunction with the corporate power of Amazon, is an incredible combination that is quite capable of influencing just about anything of pertinence in a manner that will be beneficial or non-harmful to Bezos/Amazon, in which, Amazon appears to be an unstoppable juggernaut.
Even though Americans have legislators that in theory, represent the people as a whole; in which each individual person has one equal vote in our democratic system; the way that most people think and behave, is influenced not just by the people that they congregate with, but to a very large extent, by media of all sorts, of which that media voice, is influenced strongly and almost exclusively by the money that is provided to them, of which, there most definitely are strings attached, for news is quite clearly colored by the point of origin of the money so being received.
The proof, as they say, is in the pudding, of which, as reported by time.com, "…the three richest people in the U.S. own the same amount as the bottom half of America’s population," which is something that could only happen in a country that is either fundamentally and systematically corrupt or has a system that has been completely gamed by the superrich, or both. Additionally, when it comes to the corporate side, as reported by qz.com, just a mere thirty publically traded companies accounted for 50% of all corporate earnings for all publically traded companies combined in 2015.
The above, in a nutshell, means that a massive amount of this country's collective wealth, is essentially divided between the superrich individuals and the superrich corporations, whereas the mass of citizens and the majority of corporations are stuck fighting over a relatively small piece of the remaining pie; all done under the watch of our executive, legislative, and judicial branches which are well rewarded so as to make sure that the superrich basically get it all.