Addressing a system that rewards concentrated wealth over work. Research and infrastructure for restoring accountability.
If official explanations don't match what you see, you're not imagining it. The system is harder to make sense of than it needs to be. This research makes visible what usually stays hidden: the specific mechanisms through which concentrated wealth captures democratic governance. Once you can name the machinery, you can see it operating everywhere. And once enough people can name it, restoring accountability becomes possible.
This research is one artifact in a larger effort to restore accountability to democratic governance. We're currently in a listening phase: gathering feedback, identifying where this framework adds value, and connecting with those already working on pieces of this problem. If the diagnosis resonates, we want to know what it clarifies and where it falls short. If you're interested in what we're building beyond this research, we'd welcome that conversation.
At its core, this work is about a system that rewards concentrated wealth over work—and its corrosive effect on democratic governance. That dynamic shows up everywhere: in tax policy, healthcare, how elections get funded, how regulations get written. If you see it in your own world, we'd welcome the conversation.
How Concentrated Wealth Systematically Captures Democratic Governance
Concentrated wealth shapes who gets elected and what they do in office—through campaign financing that filters candidates, lobbying that provides privileged access, and revolving door hiring that lets donors draft the rules themselves.
The agencies and courts that interpret laws are systematically shaped through strategic appointments, funding cuts, and legal doctrines that consistently favor concentrated wealth over public interest.
Enforcement resources are starved and selectively deployed—targeting those who can't fight back while the wealthy face rare audits, token penalties, and legal teams that make compliance effectively optional.
Think tanks, media ownership, and academic funding shape public understanding so that policies benefiting concentrated wealth appear as neutral expertise or economic common sense.
Each mechanism reinforces the others—captured rules generate wealth that funds more lobbying, shapes narratives, and weakens enforcement—a self-accelerating system that resists democratic correction.
Get the full analysis and join the conversation about what comes next.
Addressing a system that rewards concentrated wealth over work