Where we are heading if United Citizens is not reversed.
The future isn’t usually an on/off switch—unless something catastrophic happens. For example, when Donald Trump authorized the “kidnapping” of Nicolás Maduro—who was captured alongside his wife, Cilia Flores, during the same U.S. operation in January 2026—it abruptly altered the country’s future and undermined the principle of national sovereignty. Regardless of how one feels about Maduro, allowing one country to enter another and seize its leader sets a precedent that should concern everyone. By doing so, Trump made my country less safe than it has been since 9/11. If sovereignty matters, then it has to apply consistently—otherwise, it doesn’t really mean anything.
Fortunately for us in America, no one is attacking us—unless you count PACs and billionaires. That’s because, through Congress, legal loopholes have allowed them to exert enormous influence over both Congress and the White House. Since Citizens United v. FEC, corporations, wealthy donors, and outside groups have been able to spend unlimited amounts on elections, amplifying that influence. Whether you see that as free speech or a problem, it’s hard to deny that it has shifted who holds power in our system.
Our country’s direction reveals itself through signals—or more precisely, through patterns, man-made patterns—not a crystal ball or Kahanist ideology. I came of age during the dawn of personal computing. I worked with early machines, used DOS, and handled floppy disks—things that required you to actually understand how the system worked. Over time, like many people, I traded that knowledge for the convenience of Windows, and I’ve felt that shift myself.
My generation may be one of the last tenuous links to that pre-AI world and to a more hands-on understanding of how technology—and by extension, our systems—actually function. That matters, because technology hasn’t just changed what we do; it’s changed how we think and interact. Younger generations have grown up in a completely different environment—one where even things like cursive writing are fading.
None of this is inherently good or bad, but it does mean something important: if we don’t pay attention to the patterns shaping us—technological, political, and cultural—we risk losing sight of the foundations that make democratic participation meaningful in the first place.
We are on the cusp of becoming a stratified economic hierarchy, largely influenced by Citizens United v. FEC and congressional malfeasance. Read on to learn how to recognize the patterns—TIY: Track It Yourself.
Our education system is geared, and always has been I think, toward creating “worker bees,” while elites receive a specialized education that, generally speaking, prepares them for wealth-building, politics, and managing those worker bees—in other words, the lower tiers.
The clearest way to describe where the U.S. is heading is this: political power, asset ownership, and technological advantage are concentrating at the top at the same time. This means that a relatively small set of very wealthy donors, networks, firms, and aligned interest groups now have outsized capacity to shape elections, policy agendas, and the terms of economic change. In the 2023–2024 federal cycle alone, PACs raised about $15.7 billion, and reported independent expenditures totaled about $4.4 billion. Separately, the Brennan Center estimates that dark money exceeded $1.9 billion in 2024 federal races, the highest on record since Citizens United.
Billionaires and firms with the most capital influence rules on taxes, antitrust, labor, financial disclosure, and AI deployment, then capture a disproportionate share of the upside when those rules favor capital over labor. The IMF explicitly warns that AI could raise capital returns in ways that increase wealth inequality, especially if AI complements high-income workers while displacing or downgrading others
WARNING SIGNS Flowchart (America)
Early Warning Signs (Moving Toward a Rigid, Stratified System)
- Wealth Concentration Keeps Accelerating
• Top 1% share of wealth keeps rising year after year
• Middle class asset ownership (homes, stocks) stagnates or declines
• More wealth tied to financial assets vs wages
👉 Signal: When growth primarily benefits capital, not labor - AI Gains Flow Mostly to Owners, Not Workers
• Productivity rises, but wages don’t
• Companies reduce headcount while profits increase
• Workers become “assistants to AI” rather than beneficiaries of it
👉 Signal: Technology widens the gap instead of lifting everyone - Fewer Truly Competitive Elections
• Same types of candidates dominate ballots
• Primaries effectively decide outcomes in most districts
• Outside money increasingly determines viability early
👉 Signal: Voters choose among pre-filtered options - Information Ecosystem Narrows
• A few platforms or narratives dominate public discourse
• Independent voices struggle to reach scale
• Algorithmic amplification favors funded or institutional content
👉 Signal: Influence over attention becomes concentrated - Mobility Declines Across Generations
• Kids’ outcomes increasingly tied to parents’ income
• Education no longer meaningfully levels the playing field
• Career switching becomes harder after early adulthood
👉 Signal: Your starting point matters more than your effort - Work Becomes More Precarious
• Growth of gig/contract work without stability
• Benefits tied less to employment
• Frequent forced career transitions
👉 Signal: People are cycling through work, not building security - Policy Outcomes Track Donor Interests More Closely
• Public opinion diverges from enacted policy
• Reforms with broad support repeatedly stall
• Regulation weakens in areas affecting major capital holders
👉 Signal: System responsiveness shifts upward, not outward
Stabilization Signals (System Correcting or Balancing)
- Broader Asset Ownership Expands
• More people gain access to stocks, retirement funds, or equity
• Policies encourage wealth-building for the middle class
• Housing becomes more attainable
👉 Signal: Growth is shared, not concentrated - Workers Capture Some AI Upside
• Productivity gains translate into higher wages or shorter hours
• Companies invest in retraining instead of replacing workers
• New job categories emerge faster than old ones disappear
👉 Signal: Technology complements labor, not replaces it - Competitive Elections Increase
• More viable candidates outside traditional pipelines
• Primaries and general elections remain unpredictable
• Campaign finance becomes more transparent
👉 Signal: Voters retain real influence over outcomes - Information Becomes More Decentralized
• Multiple platforms and voices reach large audiences
• Independent media competes with large institutions
• Algorithmic transparency improves
👉 Signal: No single narrative gatekeeper dominates - Mobility Improves
• Education and training lead to real upward movement
• Mid-career transitions become easier and more common
• Geographic mobility increases
👉 Signal: People can still change their trajectory - Policy Responds to Broad Public Pressure
• Reforms pass even when they challenge concentrated interests
• Antitrust enforcement or regulation increases where needed
• Public trust stabilizes or improves
👉 Signal: Institutions remain responsive to voters
Upper Atmospheric View
What you’re really looking for is this tension:
Does power concentrate faster than opportunity expands?
• If concentration wins → system feels locked, hierarchical, “caste-like”
• If opportunity keeps up → system stays dynamic and fluid
TIY (Track It Yourself)
A practical checklist:
1. Who owns the gains from new technology?
2. Are elections a force choice between pre-determined candidates?
3. Is it easier or harder to move up economically?
4. Are wages keeping up with productivity?
5. Do policies reflect broad public demand or business and billionaire interests?
Stratified Economic Hierarchy
Tier 1: The Capital Class (Ultra-Wealthy Controllers)
A small group of billionaires, major investors, and founders:
• Own large portions of AI, infrastructure, media, and finance
• Influence policy through lobbying, funding, and access
• Benefit most from automation and capital growth
They wouldn’t need to “control everything directly”—their power would come from ownership and leverage over systems.
Tier 2: The Managerial / Technical Class
Highly skilled professionals:
• Engineers, executives, analysts, legal experts
• Run and maintain systems owned by Tier 1
• Well-paid but dependent on corporate structures
This group acts as the operational layer—they don’t own the system or control it, they keep it operation for 1%.
Tier 3: The Service & Compliance Class
A large portion of the population:
• Gig workers, service employees, administrative roles
• Increasingly monitored, optimized, or partially automated
• Less job security, fewer benefits
This tier absorbs most of the economic pressure from automation and cost-cutting.
Tier 4: The Displaced / Precarious Class
Those most affected by structural change:
• Workers displaced by AI or globalization
• Older workers struggling to retrain
• People relying on unstable or minimal support systems
This group faces the highest risk of long-term economic exclusion.
Bottom Line
What Stratified Economic Hierarchy looks like in America:
- Wealth keeps concentrating
- Mobility keeps declining
- Technology benefits owners more than workers
- And political influence follows that concentration
It wouldn’t be formal or written into law. Instead, it becomes caste-like because:
• Mobility slows down → harder to move between tiers
• Wealth compounds at the top → ownership becomes inherited advantage
• Opportunities diverge early → education, networks, and access separate people
• Technology reinforces hierarchy → those who own AI benefit most
Over time, your starting position matters more than your effort—that’s the key shift toward a caste-like system.
