unfair finance · the architecture, named

wages · the scissors that opened

1979 to 2023, US worker productivity rose 80.9%. Hourly compensation for the typical worker rose 29.4%. The gap is the wealth transfer. CEO pay rose 1,460%+ over the same window — workers got 18%.

~ source: Economic Policy Institute (EPI), 2023.

Federal minimum wage has been $7.25/hr since July 24, 2009. The longest stretch without a federal minimum-wage increase in US history. In 2009 inflation-adjusted dollars, the buying power has fallen to roughly $5.20.

Shrinkflation / greedflation: US corporate profit margins hit 50-year highs in 2022. According to the Groundwork Collaborative analysis (2024), corporate profits drove approximately 53% of inflation 2020-2023. Wages chased; they didn't lead.

taxes · the structure for keeping it

In June 2021, ProPublica published a leak of IRS records covering the top 25 US billionaires from 2014–2018. Their "true tax rate" — federal income tax paid divided by net worth growth — was 3.4%.

~ source: ProPublica IRS leak, June 2021.

Carried interest loophole. Hedge fund and private equity managers' performance fees are taxed at long-term capital gains rates (~20%) instead of ordinary income (~37%). Estimated annual benefit to the industry: ~$14 billion (Tax Policy Center). Survives every reform attempt across both parties.

Amazon, 2018: $11.2B profit. $0 federal income tax. Received a $129M tax rebate. Effective rate: -1.2%. (ITEP)

2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Corporate rate cut from 35% to 21%. CBO projected $1.9T added to deficit over 10 years. Tax Policy Center analysis: by 2027, approximately 83% of cuts accrue to the top 1%.

IRS audit collapse. IRS funding was cut roughly 22% in real terms 2010-2022. Million-dollar-earner audit rate fell from 12.5% (2011) to 1.6% (2019). Below-poverty-line EITC claimants are now more likely to be audited than millionaires. The Inflation Reduction Act restored $80B; the House attempted to reverse it in 2023.

Tax gap. The top 1% evade approximately $163 billion per year in taxes — about 28% of all unpaid tax (NBER, Guyton et al, 2021).

housing · the asset captured

Between 2020 and 2024, institutional investors — Blackstone (Invitation Homes), Pretium Partners, Tricon Residential, Progress Residential — bought tens of thousands of single-family homes across the US. In Sun Belt metros like Phoenix, Atlanta, and Charlotte, institutional ownership of single-family rentals reached approximately 7% by 2024 (Urban Institute).

The conversion from owner-occupied to rental-by-conglomerate transferred home equity from individual households to institutional balance sheets. The cohort priced out is not just first-time buyers — it's the entire 25-44 age range that historically built wealth through housing.

Pension ↔ 401(k) shift. In 1980, approximately 38% of US private-sector workers had a defined-benefit pension. By 2024, that figure was approximately 13% (EBRI). The 401(k) shift transferred retirement risk from corporations to individuals. Median 401(k) balance among workers near retirement: less than $30,000.

healthcare · the rent extracted

Insulin pricing. The US list price of a single vial of insulin is approximately $300. The same drug costs $20–30 in most EU countries. Three manufacturers — Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk, Sanofi — control more than 90% of the global market. The Inflation Reduction Act (2022) capped Medicare insulin at $35/month. It did not cap the rest of the market.

Pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs). Three companies — CVS Caremark, Express Scripts, OptumRx — control approximately 80% of US prescription drug volume. The 2024 FTC report found that PBMs forced patients onto more expensive drugs to capture rebates — pocketing the difference. The patient paid more so the middleman could capture more.

Medical bankruptcy. Approximately 66.5% of US bankruptcies cite medical bills as the leading contributor (Himmelstein et al., American Journal of Public Health, 2019). The US is the only peer country where this is a meaningful cause of personal insolvency. Roughly 530,000 families per year.

Cross-reference: the Sackler · Purdue · OxyContin entry for how the architecture interacts with active malice.

private equity · the strip-and-flip pipeline

~ sources: WSJ, Bloomberg, NYT.

The pattern: PE acquires a stable company using debt secured against the company itself. Real estate is sold to a sister fund and leased back at above-market rents. Cash is extracted through dividend recapitalizations. The original company is left with debt service it cannot sustain. When it fails, the PE firm has already profited; the workers have not.

buybacks · the choice that wasn't required

Stock buybacks were treated as illegal market manipulation in the US until SEC Rule 10b-18 (1982), which created a safe harbor exemption. Forty years later, in 2022, S&P 500 companies bought back $922 billion of their own stock — a record. That same year, layoff announcements topped 360,000 workers (Challenger Gray data).

The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 imposed a 1% excise tax on buybacks. Corporate cash use barely shifted; the tax was small relative to the marginal benefit of buybacks vs reinvestment.

~ sources: S&P Global, Challenger Gray.

gig workers · the misclassification

Uber, Lyft, and DoorDash spent more than $200 million on California Proposition 22 (passed November 2020) to keep drivers classified as 1099 independent contractors rather than W-2 employees. UC Berkeley analysis estimates the misclassification saves the three companies an estimated $4-5 billion per year in unpaid benefits (overtime, workers comp, payroll tax, unemployment insurance, paid sick leave).

The FTC's non-compete ban, finalized April 2024, would have invalidated non-compete clauses covering approximately 30 million workers. A Texas federal court blocked the rule in August 2024. As of this writing, ~30M workers remain bound by clauses many of them never realized they signed.

student debt · the captive market

Outstanding US student loan debt: $1.77 trillion across approximately 43 million borrowers. Real (inflation-adjusted) public university tuition rose +213% 1988-2018. The same window saw state appropriations to public universities fall in real terms.

Federal student loans are non-dischargeable in bankruptcy except in extreme circumstances. The lender (the federal government) extends credit it knows the borrower may never repay; the borrower has no path out. The system functions as a cohort-wide income tax that accrues at moments of economic stress.

methodology

Every figure on this page traces to a public source — government data (BLS, EPI, GAO, IRS, CBO), regulatory filings (SEC, FTC, FDIC), peer-reviewed research (NBER, AJPH), or mainstream investigative reporting (ProPublica, NYT, WSJ, Bloomberg, FT). Where there is genuine ambiguity, the witness uses ranges or caveats. Where the receipt is documented, PRIOR cites it cleanly.

Data sources also feed PRIOR's autonomous engines: the live monitor (15-min RSS poll across SEC press releases, DOJ Fraud Section, ProPublica, ICIJ, OpenSecrets, Senate Stock Watcher), the morning briefing (daily 13:00 UTC synthesis), and the weekly recap (Sundays 17:00 UTC).

Cross-references: insider rolodex · senate trades · SAC / Cohen · DPA carousel · throne & bank · parallel system