Take The System Back: One Person, One Vote

The billionaire take-over of our economy and government is no secret to those paying attention. The 2006 leaked Citigroup memo to their biggest investors is likely the most well documented example of billionaires continuing their take-over.

In 2005, Citigroup Global Markets sent a research memo to wealthy investors with a title that now reads less like Wall Street analysis and more like a warning label:

“Plutonomy: Buying Luxury, Explaining Global Imbalances.”

Citigroup makes clear in this post they know what is happening:

“The world is dividing into two blocs — the plutonomies, where economic growth is powered by and largely consumed by the wealthy few, and the rest.” [1]

One of the most important quote has to do with how we take the system back "one person is this:

"Furthermore, the rising wealth gap between the rich and poor will probably at some point lead to a political backlash. Whilst the rich are getting a greater share of the wealth, and the poor a lesser share, political enfranchisement remains as was – one person, one vote (in the plutonomies). At some point it is likely that labor will fight back against the rising profit share of the rich and there will be a political backlash against the rising wealth of the rich" [1]

I believe the most important quote is this:

• That is not socialist rhetoric.

• That is not a campaign slogan.

• That was Citigroup explaining to its investor clients that America had become an economy increasingly powered by the rich, for the rich, and measured by the spending power of the rich.

Citigroup knows and billionaires are afraid you will figure out your power: One Person, One Vote.

The Citigroup Plutonomy Memo Did Not Predict Trump By Name. It Predicted The System That Made Him Possible.

A plutonomy is not exactly the same thing as a plutocracy.

A plutocracy is rule by the wealthy.

A plutonomy is an economy dominated by the wealthy, where the spending, investing, tax preferences, political access, and asset ownership of the rich become so large that the “average consumer” stops explaining what is really happening.

That is the key.

Citigroup was not saying democracy had disappeared.

It was saying the economy had been structurally reorganized around the wealthy few.

And once the economy becomes a plutonomy, politics naturally starts bending toward plutocracy.

That is why the billionaire support for billionaire Donald Trump should not be seen as an accident. It was the culmination of a system Citigroup had already described: capital consolidates, the rich get richer, government becomes more “market-friendly,” labor loses bargaining power, and eventually political power follows economic power. [2]

In 2024, billionaire money was not background noise. It was infrastructure. Brennan Center analysis found that the biggest presidential super PACs relied heavily on donors giving $5 million or more, with most of that increase attributable to the effort to elect Trump. [3] Reuters reported that Elon Musk alone spent more than a quarter-billion dollars to help elect Trump. [4] Forbes continues to list Trump himself as a billionaire. [5]

So when people ask, “How did billionaires take over America?”

One answer is: slowly, legally, strategically, and in plain sight.

The Plutonomy memo matters because it showed the wealthy were not merely getting richer.

They were becoming the organizing principle of the economy.

And once that happened, the next logical step was political capture.

This is why voting still matters.

Citigroup’s later memo identified the real risk to plutonomy: democracy. The wealthy could own more of the economy, but ordinary citizens still had “one person, one vote.” [6]

That is the pressure point.

The billionaires have money.

The people still have votes.

But votes only matter when we stop treating politics like team sports and start treating it like a power audit.

Read the memo. Check the sources. Decide for yourself.

Document link: Citigroup Global Markets, “Plutonomy: Buying Luxury, Explaining Global Imbalances,” Oct. 16, 2005. [1]

Sources

[1] Ajay Kapur, Niall Macleod & Narendra Singh, Citigroup Global Markets, “Plutonomy: Buying Luxury, Explaining Global Imbalances” 1 (Oct. 16, 2005). (https://www.sourcewatch.org/images/b/bc/CITIGROUP-MARCH-5-2006-PLUTONOMY-MEMO_.pdf)

[2] Citigroup’s 2006 follow-up stated that the rich dominated income, wealth, and spending in the U.S., U.K., Canada, and Australia, and that “market-friendly governments” helped the rich prosper.

[3] Brennan Center for Justice, “Megadonors Playing Larger Role in Presidential Race, FEC Data Shows” (Nov. 1, 2024). (Brennan Center for Justice)

[4] Reuters, “Musk spent over a quarter of a billion dollars to help elect Trump” (Dec. 6, 2024). (Reuters)

[5] Forbes, “The Definitive Net Worth Of Donald Trump” (Mar. 25, 2026). (Forbes)

[6] Ajay Kapur, Niall Macleod & Narendra Singh, Citigroup Global Markets, “Revisiting Plutonomy: The Rich Getting Richer” 9–10 (Mar. 5, 2006).