Boycott Billionaires One Dollar at a Time

A guest post by new Substack columnist and friend Sparky Von Plinsky of Keene, NH

If you would indulge me a couple of paragraphs, I would like to introduce myself to you, Andru’s Audience, by relaying a moment of staggering naïveté from my not-so-distant past. Then I will outline the power and importance of my Substack column: “Boycott Billionaires.”

The year is 2019, and I am the newly sworn-in Honorable Sparky Von Plinsky, State Representative, representing Keene’s 4^th ward in the New Hampshire General Court in Concord. Angry about Trump, excited about just about everything else. I have my seat, my name tag, and more than a few butterflies swirling beneath my horribly knotted tie. Change is happening!

Before that first year’s session could work its way into full swing, I invited Executive Councilor Andru Volinsky to speak to a group of legislators about the Granite State’s education funding problems. I actually remember thinking that if all of my fellow Representatives and I would just educate ourselves on the underlying issues plaguing the state’s schools, then it would be a simple matter of working out the numbers and boom, problem solved.

The presentation was both extremely informative and well-received. As my colleagues and I returned to our seats I was flying high. Surely, I thought, the power of a good idea well-argued would win the day.

That was January; by Valentine’s Day, the last shards of my illusion of representational rationalism had come crashing down around me.

A New Mission

Long before I’d become a State Rep I knew greed was a cancer, but it was the depths of its spread that startled me. Over those first few weeks of 2019, I saw, up close and firsthand how, even in little New Hampshire, money overpowered people.

I heard straight-faced arguments about the absence of a school funding problem, the absence of a climate problem, and the absence of an infrastructure problem. Basically, I heard that the only problem we really faced was an over-taxation/overregulation problem. By the end of that first session a few months later, I had said goodbye to my naïveté and seen it replaced by cynicism.

Oh, how I missed being naive!

Fast-forward six years. I have finally learned to tie a decent half-Windsor, though this skill is less useful now that I am no longer a State Rep. I have also decided to turn my cynicism into power—the power to help people understand how to push back against the greed that is tearing our world apart; and why doing exactly that, at this moment in history is nothing short of critical.

The Rise of the Billionaires

The last few decades have seen us sleepwalk into a world that has seen a horrifying concentration of wealth (and the power that comes with it). In just the first few years of this decade, the wealthiest 1% have swiped two-thirds of the global economic pie, leaving a scant third for the rest of us.

We’ve grown numb to a world where the voices of the wealthy and the self-centered drown out the voices of the competent and kind for no other reason than we seem to value dollars over sense. The kowtowing of our “leaders” in Washington to the billionaire elite is essentially complete.

We are at best a Democratic Oligarchy. Our President is a billionaire, his cabinet is mostly billionaires, and the richest man in the history of the world is firing government employees with minutes notice.

But How Did We Get Here?

There are a thousand different ways to answer that question.

It’s because of Reagan’s tax policies. True.

It’s a feature, not a bug, of under-regulated capitalism. Also true.

It’s because we’ve elevated the worship of money to a status akin to religion. Certainly true.

I could go on; the answers are endless and usually quite complicated. But in the end, they are probably also irrelevant. We are here. The real question is, how do we turn this ship around? How do we fight back against a species-defining (and potentially destroying) level of greed? How do you make an oligarchy, not an oligarchy? Surprisingly, the answer to that question is rather simple.

One Dollar at a Time

Billionaires have an Achilles heel. They need us. They need us because enough is never enough. Our economic system is built not on the pursuit of profit, but rather on the pursuit of profit growth. Making only a billion dollars this quarter isn’t enough if you made a billion last quarter. Profit growth is a monster that can never be sated. And the greedy need us to feed their growth monster. This is where my Substack, Boycott Billionaires, comes in.

It is easy to feel powerless and overwhelmed when contemplating the “Billionaire Problem.” And make no mistake, it is a problem, perhaps the problem. Did you know that January 2025 saw Mark Zuckerberg earn more than $1 billion per day? His January alone would crack the top 50 all-time wealthiest people list. In the face of that level of greed, it is easy and understandable to ask, “What the hell am I going to do against a guy who earns more in 30 seconds than I’ll earn in 5 years?”

You starve the [insert Samuel L. Jackson’s favorite word here] One Dollar at a Time.

What is “One Dollar at a Time” Boycotting?

One Dollar at a Time Boycotting encourages you to start thinking about every purchase you make. At first, it can be exhausting. I get it. But it is also so damn empowering. Need a pair of socks? Buy them from Vermont’s Darn Tough instead of Walmart. Need a new cooler? Buy it from Nutshell instead of Amazon. Need laundry detergent? Buy it from Tru-Earth instead of Unilever.

Can it be more expensive to support the little guy? Yes, but not always, and not as often as you’d think. Does it take longer to research and shop around for a purchase when you can’t just click twice on Amazon? Yes, it does, but the satisfaction of keeping a few bucks out of Jeff Bezos’ pockets is worth every second.

And those few bucks are the beauty of “One Dollar at a Time.” You don’t have to cold turkey Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk or any part of the Walton family tree (though it’s great if you can). It’s not about how big your personal boycott starts; it’s that your personal boycott starts. When you reduce your billionaire support payments by just 10%, you are putting the Profit Growth Monster on a diet; at 50%, you are starting to emaciate the greedy bastard. Then, something special happens.

You begin to feel a weight start to lift. You see every dollar not spent at Amazon, not spent at Walmart, not spent at any of the corporate behemoths that feed the Profit Growth Monster as a statement. A statement that the world the greedy are leaving us is no longer good enough; and that the time of stealing prosperity from today and dreams from tomorrow is finished. Quite simply, that enough is enough!

Thank you, Andru and Andru’s Army

The world is a lot different than it was when I first met Andru nearly a decade ago. And sadly, much of that difference isn’t great. Having said that, I believe we still live in a world that has not moved beyond redemption. A world where good people like Andy and you, his readers, are fighting the fights that matter.