Billionaire Wilderness: The Ultra-Wealthy and the Remaking of the American West

by Justin Farrell

As a result, local charitable organizations, who rely on immense amounts of economic and human capital from the ultra-wealthy, are prone to becoming captive to a particular view of the world promoted by their donors and board members, which tends to sustain the status quo, and nullifies efforts for more groundbreaking change to address the roots of social problems brought on by such wealth disparity. Importantly, I found that all of this can happen with the best of intentions by all parties involved, and that the institutionalization and normalization of these patterns make them appear as the standard modus operandi. They have become the new normal. Meanwhile, organizations with agendas that challenge the status quo, either by promoting more dramatic political changes, grassroots organizing, or direct action, or pointing out the roots of social, economic, and environmental inequality receive drastically less charitable support, and thus wield relatively little power.