Wealth inequality is often blamed on billionaires, but never on government policy that systematically diverts workers’ income away from private ownership and into non-inheritable entitlement programs. Payroll taxes for Social Security and Medicare, combined with rising healthcare mandates, remove thousands annually from middle-class families, funds that could otherwise compound into long-term wealth.

A central contrast emerges between ownership and promise. Private investments grow, compound, and can be passed down; entitlement benefits remain political guarantees that never appear as personal assets. Meanwhile, capital gains and reinvested corporate growth allow wealth to accumulate outside wage-based taxation, widening the structural divide.

Historical tax policy, bracket creep, and modern state-level tax increases are presented as reinforcing the same pattern: shrinking disposable income while expanding government control.

If wealth grows through ownership, why does the system keep us from building it?

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