Not exactly.
Wealthy Americans protect their wealth with everything they have. Every terrible, society-destroying thing they do is meticulously designed by brilliant people who have sold their souls in pursuit of the wealth they serve.
If the DeVos family loses everything tomorrow, they may be allowed to sleep on Larry Ellison's couch for a while, but the clock is ticking. If they cant bounce back pretty quickly, they get written off.
The Koch brothers found a guy named Fink. Fink has retired now as he was the CEO of Koch. He designed a decades-long plan that changed how politics are financed, combined with political think tanks. The first of which was a grad program at George Mason U that has literally just produced report after report trying to convince the world climate change is BS since the 1980's.
The Koch Brothers Network generates a couple of billion a year from donations received by the 1.5% richest Americans. They then legally launder (remember, they spent 30 years changing laws to accommodate Fink's plan) the money the richest Americans give them by putting it all into a single fund, then dispensing tactically to politicians who will do anything they tell them to and universities that will agree to their version of reality to teach our children how to think like they do.
That way no one can accuse the billionaires (who do not disclose if or how much they donate) of being responsible for climate change, destroying unions, defending Monsanto as they give 1000's of people cancer, etc etc. No one can say they are "evil" for their support of a system that has destroyed America.
Climate denial isn't the goal, keeping oil as the most important business on the planet is.
I'll link it below, as I did a detailed story on the Koch Bros.
My deep dive into the Kochs.
Good macro info.
