Los acumuladores de riqueza: Cómo los milmillonarios pagan millones para ocultar billones (El libro de bolsillo - Ciencias sociales)

by Chuck Collins, Carmen Criado (Translator)

Uno de los rasgos más perversos que caracterizan el mundo actual es la creciente y cada vez más obscena desigualdad económica entre una ínfima minoría de la población, estimada en un 0,1%, que acumula la mayor parte de la riqueza del planeta (un mundo paralelo de privilegiados por lo común oculto y desconocido que hace caso omiso de leyes y tributaciones), y el resto. En esta mezcla de narración personal y de investigación en ciencias sociales, Chuck Collins, antiguo miembro de esa selecta minoría, destapa la "arquitectura de la desigualdad": las complejas y opacas tramoyas de que se sirven los superricos del planeta para soslayar sus responsabilidades sociales por medio de la evasión de impuestos, incurriendo en un robo legal que destruye los servicios públicos y veda el acceso a viviendas dignas y recursos esenciales. Asimismo, propone un plan para revertir esa desigualdad de modo que la riqueza se distribuya de forma más equitativa y la acción de los gobiernos pueda ser más efectiva.

Genres: Economics, Nonfiction, Business, Finance, Audiobook, Politics, Money

271 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 26, 2022

About the author

Chuck is the director of the Program on Inequality at the Institute for Policy Studies, where he co-edits Inequality.org. He oversees a number of programs focused on wealth inequality, the racial wealth divide, and philanthropy reform.

Reviews

[General Bonaparte]

Collins is a communist crank, and his book is unserious. Don't read it.

Nevertheless, the growing wealth inequalities he discusses, along with rising fiscal pressures and populist energies, argue that the future will have more confiscatory tax regimes. Inevitably, they will be politically sold as a tax on billionaires, but they will disproportionately burden the upper middle class, who lack access to the tax avoidance schemes enjoyed by the former. The 1913 income tax was initially aimed at the 99th percentile, yet the exigencies of war broadened the tax base into a mass tax.

A more rigorous book is The Second Estate by Madoff, which discusses how the billionaire class has assets, not income. Thus, they paid no income taxes, while the only meaningful wealth tax they face, the estate tax, is dismissively referred to as "the only voluntary tax," so easy is it to avoid with legal maneuver.

[Larry Bassett]

This book was published in 2021, but the story begins in 1983 when Chuck Collins realized he was going to inherit a substantial amount of money at the age of 25. He had to choose which road he was going to go down as a wealthy individual. This book is a startling story of the decision that he made, the path he chose, and the results of his decision.

I have spent a good deal of my time as a war tax resistor, choosing to refuse to pay federal income taxes, because of the amount of money that goes to the military and war. As a participant and organizer in this relatively small US movement, I have been forced to learn more than I would like to know about the US taxation system. I suspect that Chuck Collins found himself in a similar position when he decided that he was going to break the major rule of wealth, which is “don’t spend the principal”!

This is an amazing book of Hope and possibilities that talks about one of the subjects that has become more front and center in the US in recent years: the accumulation of wealth at the top.

[Grant]

A very good general overview without spending too much time on some of the more boring aspects of the financial complexities in hiding wealth.

[Guillaume]

Too skimpy on details. Will try The Finance Curse next.

[WiseB]

The author, who inherited significant family wealth but gave it away to good causes, revealed the inner workings of how the wealthiest 0.1 percent hoard their wealth for themselves and their future generations by means of trusts; non-charitable foundations; shell corporations; and anonymously owned assets ... via channels like tax haven states; bank accounts in secrecy jurisdictions; countries or states with laws allowing non-disclosure of beneficial ownership for limited companies; opaque trusts without disclosure of the true beneficiary ... plus the help and services from Wealth Defense Industry (WDI) professionals including lawyers, accountants, tax advisors, lobbyists, wealth managers and family offices.

The last chapter in the book provides some solutions to wealth hiding ...

• Transparency against money laundering
• Corporate taxation and governance
• Disclosure of beneficial ownership of real estate
• Disclosure of beneficial ownership
• Shutting down tax haven USA
• Closing individual wealth-hiding practices in trusts and loopholes
• Enforcing global standards

Unless one is a layman in this WDI, the means and tools for the wealth hoarding should not be any surprise or not-heard-of practices ... Implying the suggested solutions are not unknown to those who can make an effort to fix the problems. One can deduce that there are various vested interest parties who do not want to see this happen ... especially the monetary reduction in terms of the professional fees charges and lobbying money spent on involved parties, not to mention the illegal money for bribery etc.

[Brian Weisz]

Attempts to expose the industry around defending and hiding the wealth of the 0.01%, but I was mostly just bored.

[Brian]

Wealth inequality is perhaps the greatest public policy challenge of our times. The global economic system is deliberately designed to reinforce the growing gap between rich and poor. This is not surprising given the concentration of economic and political power in the wealthiest 0.1%. Such concentration destabilizes the economy, contributes to poverty, and undermines democratic institutions.

The Wealth Hoarders contributes an insider understanding of the many tools used to prevent wealth from being redistributed. The brief book is dense, but in all fairness so is the subject. The author makes a convincing case that the economic system is rigged to make the rich even richer and incredibly unfair to working people. He documents the many ways that the two dominant political parties in the U.S. do the bidding of economic oligarchs to the detriment of most citizens. Unfortunately, his proposed solutions fall far short in providing a road map to see the economic reforms needed to see that wealth is shared with the many and not hoarded by the few. He also conveniently overlooks the cultural and social reasons why those who are paying the price for wealth hoarding are opposed to reforms that would be in their economic interests. At the same time, he recognizes but downplays the propaganda machine that the wealthy employ to justify and rationalize their wealth.

If anything, we are further from real reform now than we were when the book was published in 2021. The book needs a prologue that addresses the corrupt economic oligarchy that has emerged in the U.S. over the past year (2025) that is doubling down on the concentration of economic and political power and actively promoting class warfare and tribal divisions among the economically disadvantaged.

[Elwin Kline]

Probably the most negative, one-sided, agenda oriented, anti-right/pro-left books I have ever touched.

"I did not like it."

1 out of 5 star rating, with a worst-in-class tag.

In no particular order:
- Opens book with an Anti-Trump kick-off right off the bat.
- Villainizes the wealthy and rich via narrative/story telling angle
- Villainizes those who support the rich in any way shape or form
- Uses race card, Christianity angle, and openly states his anti-right stance

I cannot believe how disgustingly awful this book is.

If you want to blame the color of the skin and your great-great-grand parents choices in life, and use this as an excuse for your current financial status and the state of your personal criminal record - you'll love this book.

If you are hard Left - this book is for you.

If you believe that all rich people are evil and being poor is unfair and has nothing to do with personal accountability - man, you'll tear this one up.

If you want to listen to a *grown* man throw a temper tantrum similar to my 2-year-old over and over in a loop of anti-rich, anti-right, negativity - grab this today!

You will walk away with absolutely nothing positive, thought provoking, beneficial, or anything worthwhile whatsoever from this book.

Again, definitely one of the absolute worst books I have ever touched.

Avoid this at all costs.

[Dennis Hogan]

Finished The Wealth Hoarders: How Billionaires Pay Millions to Hide Trillions by Chuck Collins, an interesting book by the heir to a great midwestern fortune who turned his back on his wealth and has become a champion of reform. The schemes outlined in the book to avoid tax responsibility and pass down dynastic wealth are obscene. Additionally, the “race to the bottom”, that US States and worldwide tax havens strive for in reducing/eliminating tax and cloaking all activity in secrecy is putting the burden on the lower 99% of citizens. Collins describes the lawyers and accountants who work in this field as the Weather Defense Industry and it generally is not a flattering picture. The US has become a haven for oligarchs and dictators from around the world to keep their money safe. I was most outraged by the secret real estate purchases by unidentified trusts that drive up the local markets and then 30% of those apartments and condominiums are never occupied. They exist purely as safe investments. Eye opening

[RJ]

Ill gotten gains from fraud I agree should be seized to remedy the victims. Any money used in commerce or investing should also be taxed with existing law. I do not agree one generation should be taxed when passing it on to the next. Assuming those other taxes have been taken when the money was earned. That is not always the case, and a one time penalty (or jail time) is appropriate. I would focus more on that common ground. Principally people who hard for their kids to have a better life and should be able to pass on what they have earned.

[Barbara J]

Extremely important subject but not the best writing style; very disjointed and duplicative yet does not give enough information on certain subjects, for example - philanthropy. My overall concern is that this is somewhat one-sided. So, if you're really concerned about these issues, bear in mind that you might not be getting the full story from this book.

[John Hively]

Excellent, well-written, well-researched book on a topic not often discussed, and that is wealthy families have developed their own corporations to help hide their money from the tax man. At least $24 trillion have not been taxed because of all the loopholes created by the wealth defense industry and their politicians in public office.

[Courtney]

I struggled with how to rate this book between 3 or 4 starts. It is one of the most biased books I have ever read, however, I don't disagree with the veracity of its claims. I do think it's problematic though that most of the book is spent railing against certain professions when the solutions chapter was, rightfully, more systems oriented. One of the things I think the book did particularly well is explain the connection between (foreign) investment in ultra luxury real estate and gentrification.

On a different note, the quality of the print edition was low. Many pages looked as though the ink had been run twice so it had an almost blurry quality that was hard to read.

[Letecia]

I had never thought about how billionaires hide their money before listening to this book. Just wow, good to know. I hope many will learn what they do so we can change the way money is moved, held, hoarded, etc. Crimes against humanity for sure.

[Nancy Wagner]

Some chapters were repetitious. Overall I learned some things. One of which is, this is not going to be solved any time soon!

[Jeevan]

Quick yet informative read on what happens with the 0.001 percenters of the world.
The book could have used better formatting and editing.

[Jaan Liitmäe]

It was OK`eish - a bit too much selling of his own world-view but it`s authors right anyway.

[Jason Bailey]

The book's title implies the satisfaction of being told important secrets, and it does pull back the curtain on wealth management. But too long and often stultifying, it's written like the tax code.

[Eduardo Vara]

Un texto necesario que muestra una realidad que muchos desconocen y que, por sus consecuencias, explica mucho de las circunstancias en que debemos desempeñar nuestras profesiones y de por qué nos cuesta tanto reunir dinero para pagar nuestros gastos básicos.