Opening event
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The US had 13 billionaires in 1982; it has over 800 today. Billionaires gained $5 trillion during the COVID pandemic alone. Is extreme wealth a reward for value creation — or proof of a rigged system? Two debaters, opposing sides — you score who makes the stronger case.
Saturday, August 22, 2026 · 7:00 PM EDT
What's at stake
If billionaires reflect genuine value creation, constraining them attacks the mechanism behind vaccines and electric vehicles. If they reflect extraction, they tax everyone else.
The Matchup
Debater: To be announced
Debater: To be announced
Join the debate
Record a 60-second video on either side, or make it in writing. The strongest cases get featured before the live debate.
“Many billionaires created products that raised living standards for hundreds of millions of people worldwide. The founders of Amazon, Google, and Apple built infrastructure that billions depend on daily. Extreme wealth accumulation is, in these cases, a byproduct of extreme value creation for society — not evidence against it.”
“Eliminating the prospect of extreme upside destroys the incentive for the risk-taking that produced breakthrough innovations. The founders of Tesla, SpaceX, and Moderna took billion-dollar risks that failed more often than they succeeded. Capping the reward caps the risk-taking, with compounding losses in innovation that are enormous but invisible.”
“Billionaires acquire wealth not just through value creation but through regulatory capture, labor suppression, network effects they did not build, and market positions protected by governments they helped elect. The clean story of pure value creation describes a small fraction of extreme wealth; the rest is power compounding power.”
“Extreme wealth distorts democracy at scale. It purchases think tanks, politicians, media outlets, and narratives that no voter can counter. A single individual with $100 billion commands more political power than millions of citizens combined. Democracy and billionaires are structurally incompatible at the level of influence money can buy.”
The Format
Standard SuperDebate: two people, cross-examination, moderated from start to finish.
4 min · PRO · opening case
4 min · CON questions PRO
4 min · CON · opening case
4 min · PRO questions CON
3 min · PRO
3 min · CON
3 min · PRO · final case
3 min · CON · final case
— · You pick the winner
Don't miss it
The debate happens live with real-time audience voting. Get one email right before we go live, with the watch link.
Premieres
Saturday, August 22, 2026 · 7:00 PM EDT
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