8. Disney, an outspoken heiress, calls for higher taxation on the wealthy to restore balance to a democracy tilted by inherited privilege.
9. Gilens, Martin, and Benjamin I. Page. “Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens.” Perspectives on Politics 12, no. 3 (2014): 564–581.
10. A landmark study concluding that average Americans have negligible influence on federal policy compared to economic elites and organized interest groups.
11. Slobodian, Quinn. Crack-Up Capitalism: Market Radicals and the Dream of a World Without Democracy. New York: Metropolitan Books, 2023.
12. Explores how libertarian billionaires and market radicals have deliberately sought to build zones of deregulated wealth shielded from democratic oversight.
13. Wilson, Woodrow. The New Freedom: A Call for the Emancipation of the Generous Energies of a People. New York: Doubleday, Page & Company, 1913.
14. Wilson’s campaign treatise foreshadowed the dangers of corporate dominance and advocated for economic structures that serve the public good.
15. Zucman, Gabriel. “Global Wealth Report.” GC Wealth Project, 2024. https://gabriel-zucman.eu/global-wealth-project/
16. Provides the most current and comprehensive global data on extreme wealth accumulation, offering empirical grounding for policy inequality claims.