Original subtitles

>> NARRATOR: They're the

wealthiest people in the world.

>> ROBERT FRANK: They've got

private jets, they've got

private communities.

They've got private islands.

>> NARRATOR: And with so much

money comes incredible power...

>> ALEX JONES: They're going to

cut resources off from the

unwashed masses to protect the

planet.

>> NARRATOR: ...and exclusive

access into the most secret

circles.

>> ROBERT REICH: It's all in

secret, and therefore, anything

goes.

>> NARRATOR: But just how much

influence does this elite group

really have on America?

And what is their ultimate plan?

>> LUISA KROLL: They control

much of our media.

They have influence over our

political system.

>> MARK ZAID: The question

always comes down to, are

billionaires controlling the

U.S. Government?

>> NARRATOR: There are those

who believe in the existence

of a book.

A book that contains the most

highly guarded secrets of the

United States of America.

A book... whose very existence

is known to only a select few.

But if such a book exists,

what would it contain?

Secret fortunes?

Secret strategies?

Secret alliances?

Does there really exist

America's Book of Secrets?

March 2014.

Forbes magazine publishes their

annual list of the world's

billionaires.

It includes...

492 Americans-- more than

any other nation-- followed

by China with 152 and Russia

with 111.

Topping the list of the United

States' richest?

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates,

worth 76 billion.

Berkshire Hathaway's Warren

Buffet, worth 58 billion.

And Oracle cofounder Larry

Ellison with 48 billion.

>> ROBERT REICH: America's very

rich, and I'm talking about the

one tenth of one percent at the

top of the income and wealth

spectrum.

They are richer than they have

ever been in American history,

and certainly, by some measures,

richer than the richest have

ever been in history period.

>> LUISA KROLL: The 400 richest

Americans are worth a total of

two trillion dollars.

That's roughly five billion a

piece.

The wealthiest Americans are

getting richer and richer.

>> NARRATOR: In 2014, American

billionaires added nearly half

a trillion dollars to their

fortunes.

Bill Gates alone gained nine

billion dollars.

That's nearly $25 million per

day, or more than $17,000 a

minute.

>> RALPH NADER: The top 400

richest people in America have

more wealth than the bottom 95%

of the American people.

The CEO of Wal-Mart, Mike Duke,

makes $11,000 an hour.

He's got workers making eight

dollars an hour.

Before he goes to lunch, he's

made more than any one of one

million Wal-Mart workers working

an entire year.

>> NARRATOR: The Walton family

controls the Wal-Mart

Corporation, the world's largest

retailer.

Christy Walton, the widow of a

son of Wal-Mart's founder Sam

Walton, is the richest woman in

America with $36.7 billion.

And media mogul Oprah Winfrey

has built an empire worth $2.9

billion, making her the

country's only African-American

billionaire.

So just how rich does that make

these women?

>> JOHN RANSOM: A billion

dollars is a thousand million

dollars.

If you spent $10,000 a day, it

would take you over 300 years to

spend the entire sum.

>> ERICH "MANCOW" MULLER: A

billion dollars.

Can you imagine?

I can't wrap my mind around it.

And the only people they can

relate to is another

billionaire.

So they get together, and their

agenda is more money and more

power.

>> NARRATOR: Billionaire

brothers Charles and David Koch

own the second largest

privately-held company, Koch

Industries.

Their conglomerate, which

includes petroleum and chemical

companies, rakes in nearly $110

billion each year.

The fossil fuel dynamos also own

Georgia Pacific, one of the

world's leading manufacturers of

paper products.

And who is the youngest

self-made billionaire in the

country?

Mark Zuckerberg, the co-founder

of Facebook, and worth over $28

billion, is just 29 years old.

>> KROLL: It's important to be

tracking America's richest

people because of their control

over so much of the U.S.

economy, and also, so much of

our culture.

They own our sports teams.

They control much of our media.

They have influence over our

political system.

>> NARRATOR: But not all

billionaires are so well known.

Some have kept their fortunes

secret, staying almost

completely out of the limelight.

Richard B. Cohen, the sole owner

of C&S Wholesale Grocers,

distributes products to more

than 4,000 supermarkets across

the country.

Although he has amassed more

than $11 billion, his own

hometown of Keene, New Hampshire

was unaware for years, since he

lives quietly in a mere

million-dollar home.

>> KROLL: The more private a

billionaire is, the less

ostentatious they'll be with

their spending, most likely.

That said, a lot of these

billionaires have multiple

homes.

According to a survey that

Forbes did, the majority owned

five or more homes.

So, a billion dollars means that

you can afford not just a

ten-million-dollar home, but

multiple ten-million-dollar

homes.

>> NARRATOR: But how far do the

wealthy go to make and maintain

their fortunes?

Might they just know how to take

advantage of the system?

And is there really a

billionaire agenda?

October 15, 2013.

New York City.

After a seven-year-long battle,

developers reach an agreement to

build two luxury towers on 57t

Street in Manhattan.

Dubbed "Billionaires' Row," the

buildings' penthouses are priced

at more than $90 million each,

and will be some of the tallest

residences in the city--

literally putting billionaires

on a higher level than everyone

else.

But could there be a secret

reason why billionaires flock to

such gilded fortresses?

>> KEN SIEGEL: Certain

billionaires live with

tremendous anxiety and fear that

their bubble could burst.

And that bubble, therefore,

needs to be well protected and

well controlled.

>> KROLL: I think you start to

see, increasingly, with these

very wealthy are pockets of

places where they all like to go

together.

It kind of started with this

building called One57, where a

number of billionaires bought

these insanely expensive

apartments.

And they build these communities

where just the very elite can

afford to be there and spend

time together.

>> NADER: When you get that

rich, and you live in gated

communities or, you know, big

villas, you have your private

jet.

You don't have to stand in line

at the airports.

Everything is done for you.

All the services come to you.

You don't have to go to the

services.

>> ROBERT FRANK: Billionaires

have people that they pay to buy

their grocers, take care of

their kids, pay their bills, fix

their houses, do their dishes.

They kind of live in their own

universe that's removed from the

rest of us.

So they're not grounded in the

economic realities that most of

us are.

>> NARRATOR: In 2013, Mark

Zuckerberg bought four of his

neighbors' homes, for a whopping

$30 million, simply to ensure

privacy.

>> REICH: Being rich in America

today essentially means you

don't have to come across

anybody who is not rich.

You are in a sanitized bubble

that is designed and maintained

for rich peopl

>> KROLL: These people really

embody the American dream.

And increasingly, in recent

years, the distance between the

rest of us and them has only

grown, as has their control of

so much of the U.S. economy.

>> NARRATOR: But perhaps the

most surprising commonality

amongst the nation's

billionaires is that most did

not inherit their wealth.

In fact, nearly 70% of this

elite group built their own

businesses from the ground up,

many even coming from

underprivileged families.

>> FRANK: Almost all the

billionaires in America today

are self-made.

Very few, maybe 10% or 15%,

inherited their money.

So there's a core belief in

promoting opportunity and the

free market system.

>> REICH: The biggest secret

about America's billionaires is

that, despite what they say,

they got there because either

they had the right parents or

they had the right luck or they

cornered a market or they had

insider information that enabled

them to generate massive

fortunes.

>> NARRATOR: So what is the

secret to their success?

Just how have the top of the one

percent made their billions?

Could there be something

inherent driving billionaires to

such extreme levels of wealth?

>> NARRATOR: June, 2010.

Billionaires Warren Buffett and

Bill and Melinda Gates announce

The Giving Pledge.

Its mission: convincing

billionaires to give

at least half of their money to

charity-- either during their

lifetime or at the time of their

death.

>> RANSOM: The Giving Pledge is

a pledge made up by about 122

billionaires who have decided

that they're gonna give a

substantial-- if not the lion's

share portion-- of their money

to various foundations that will

be involved in feeding the poor,

improving education, clean water

in Africa, things like that.

>> BILL GATES: When you're

lucky enough to have a... a

great success, you know, then

you have a question-- are you

going to choose to spend it on

yourself?

Or do you want to give it back

to society?

>> SIEGEL: Bill Gates has had,

in many ways, a phenomenally,

phenomenally advantageous

upbringing that has allowed him

to do the great things he has

done.

His motivation to be

philanthropic is more

responsibility-based.

Someone who has grown up in

poverty, as many billionaires

have-- Larry Ellison began life

in Chicago in a very, very poor

place-- that oftentimes is what

induces people to feel a little

bit guilt... a little bit of

guilt about the need to pay

back.

>> NARRATOR: Do billionaires

donate so much of their money

because they feel guilty about

their fortune?

Or could there be another reason

hidden in the way they think?

>> PALAST: Billionaires are

different from us.

They're not just "us, but with

more money."

They think that they deserve to

rule the planet.

They think that without them,

the planet wouldn't turn on its

axis.

>> SIEGEL: Billionaires really

do see the world as a proving

ground, as opposed to

millionaires, let's say, who see

the world as a playground.

And what that really means is

billionaires really want to

leave their mark.

>> NARRATOR: But do billionaires

actually think differently about

the world than the rest of us?

And might that way of thinking

contribute to their great

fortunes?

Some experts believe the answer

is yes, and claim many

billionaires have what some

commonly refer to as

a God complex.

In 1995, billionaire investor

George Soros even admitted it to

the New Yorker magazine.

>> MULLER: George Soros is worth

more than many small countries.

Our new God is money.

So of course George Soros thinks

of himself as a messiah.

>> SIEGEL: Certain billionaires

have this grandiose sense of

"I am a godlike figure put here

to do great things."

They see themselves as having

some responsibility to change

the world.

>> NARRATOR: Soros' net worth

tops $23 billion.

The once-impoverished student

built his bank account through

clever manipulations of

financial markets.

>> PALAST: Billionaires like

George Soros believe that

they're going to lead us to the

deregulated free market future,

with low taxes.

They believe-- even when they're

stealing with both fists-- that

they're doing God's work.

>> RIVERO: There are a lot of

very scary billionaires out

there, because after a while,

they seem to feel their great

wealth endows them with superior

wisdom and foresight and the

right to start meddling with

other people's lives.

But when you're out there saying

"I am doing God's work," all

restraint is gone.

And I think that's dangerous.

>> NARRATOR: Do billionaires

think they know better than the

majority?

That the American masses are

just objects to control?

And is there really a secret

motivation behind their charity

work?

>> SIEGEL: The fastest way, and

really the most effective way,

for billionaires to change the

world is through philanthropy.

Because philanthropy involves

investing a large amount of

money in a cause that they feel

is important.

>> NARRATOR: In 1979, George

Soros created the Open Society

Foundations, an operation aimed

at social reform.

Since its inception, Soros has

given away more than $7 billion

to various causes.

Oprah Winfrey has used her

fortune to promote education,

funding a $40 million Leadership

Academy for Girls in South

Africa.

And the Bill and Melinda Gates

Foundation has bestowed more

than $28 billion in grants.

>> RANSOM: Bill Gates has

gotten very involved in

education, to the extent that

one of the things that the Bill

and Melinda Gates Foundation is

supporting is data tracking on

children.

As a matter of fact, the

foundation has already funded

bracelets that go on children's

arms that track their mood.

They want to be able to

individually track every child

through school.

When you explain to parents

what's going on when it comes to

data tracking, they get very

uncomfortable that the

government has this kind of

information that they can freely

share amongst the... amongst all

of the government agencies.

>> NARRATOR: Could a profound

sense of responsibility really

motivate billionaires to give

back to charity?

Or is philanthropy a way for the

wealthy to exercise their power

over the people?

>> REICH: No matter how much

money billionaires give away,

the fundamental problems that

gigantic fortunes being misused

politically and distorting our

economy remains.

>> NARRATOR: Why do some

billionaires donate so much of

their money?

Is it perhaps a covert method

used to manipulate the American

agenda?

And do the affluent really know

what's best for Americans?

Or are their philanthropic, and

even political, actions only

separating them even further

from the masses?

>> NARRATOR: In a five-to-four

vote, the Supreme Court decides

the government cannot limit the

amount of money donors can give

to political candidates,

committees and parties.

The shocking declaration gives

America's ultrarich free reign

to spend their billions on

campaign contributions.

>> FRANK: Billionaires can exert

more influence over our public

life than ever before.

That's because they have

unlimited ability now to fund

political causes and to fund

their agendas.

>> ALEX SEITZ-WALD: This is just

one part of a much bigger plan

to fundamentally change the

system to benefit people like

themselves and their friends and

their shadow money network.

>> NARRATOR: The ruling expanded

a 2010 decision known as

Citizens United that paved the

way for independent

expenditure-only committees, or

Super PACs, enabling

billionaires to contribute as

much money as they want to

political candidates without

being exposed to the public.

>> ZAID: The Citizens United

decision by the Supreme Court

pulled away any type of

prohibition of companies

donating money to political

campaigns.

And the question always comes

down to the balance and the

oversight.

Are billionaires controlling the

U.S. Government?

>> REICH: It's all dark money.

We have no idea which

billionaires are actually

putting their fortunes into our

politics and ultimately

corrupting our politics.

Wealthy individuals can now say

they're doing one thing and

actually put their money behind

a completely contrary politician

or cause.

There is no disclosure.

It's all in secret, and

therefore basically anything

goes.

>> BILL KRISTOL: If people have

a lot of money, they can find

ways to conceal, to some degree,

the expenditures of that money.

And if you set up one law that

says you have to disclose this,

they'll find ways to give money

to other groups.

>> NARRATOR: Have politics

become a rich man's game?

Are massive donations to

political candidates another way

for billionaires to exert their

intrinsic need to control

society?

>> SIEGEL: Billionaires do try

to influence the political

process and the political system

because that enables them to

affect the laws that get passed.

But that's a crapshoot because

you ultimately are at the whim

of the voters.

>> DICE: Billionaires create

front groups and lobbyists, and

they create social outreach

programs.

The amount of money that these

people have, they can shape

society.

>> REICH: There's absolutely no

question that some of these

billionaires, uh, have selfish

interests for getting as deeply

as they do into politics.

It's not just, uh, their

ideology.

They are businesspeople.

They want regulations cut.

They don't want their special,

uh, tax loopholes in any way

reduced.

>> NARRATOR: According to

reports, billionaire

conservatives David and Charles

Koch have contributed nearly

$200 million to free market

organizations as well as groups

lobbying against the Affordable

Care Act.

Liberal George Soros spent

millions trying to defeat

President Bush in 2004 and

continues a crusade to legalize

marijuana.

Could wealth inequality lead to

the destruction of democracy?

Or is it just a zero-sum billion

dollar game?

>> FRANK: In a way, you know,

it's billionaire versus

billionaire.

And not one single group or

agenda of billionaires has

really "won" in America.

It's kind of like a cold war

among billionaires.

It's mutually assured

destruction by money.

>> SEITZ-WALD: There are all

kinds of secretive ways that

people will never know anything

about-- small pieces of the tax

code, small pieces of trade

regulations, myriad of tiny

things that don't mean much to

most Americans but are worth

millions to individuals that

billionaires can influence

through their money and power.

>> RANSOM: The most important

secretive way that they

influence the agenda is by the

access that money gives them to

people in power.

Their ability to sit down with

somebody like a Barack Obama or

a Paul Ryan and whisper in their

ear, "This is one of the things

I'd like to see happen," is

very, very powerful, and it

happens every single day in

Washington D.C.

>> NARRATOR: So just how much

money are billionaires handing

out behind closed doors in an

attempt to influence American

politics?

In 2012, $7 billion was spent on

the presidential election.

Gambling tycoon Sheldon Adelson,

owner of Las Vegas casinos,

donated an unprecedented $100

million.

$30 million of it went to

Republican candidate Mitt

Romney.

But are candidates free to

disagree with their highest

donors?

Or are they beholden to them?

>> RANSOM: Warren Buffett's

company, Union Pacific Railroad,

has benefited more than any

other company by the inaction

from the Obama administration

approving the Keystone Pipeline,

because his railroad carries the

oil that's now going from Canada

down to the Gulf of Mexico.

>> NARRATOR: Do wealthy donors

set the political agenda,

perhaps even influencing

candidates?

And are billionaires only acting

independently?

Or could they be quietly meeting

in secret with other like minds

in an effort to further their

common goals?

>> NARRATOR: Vail, Colorado.

Charles and David Koch hold

their biannual summit at the

Ritz-Carlton Bachelor Gulch.

Isolated in an exclusive enclave

on Beaver Creek Mountain, the

fundraising seminar is one of

the most secret meetings of the

wealthy, where 300 handpicked

attendees come together to

strategize away from prying

eyes.

>> SEITZ-WALD: After the 2011

summit in Vail, we learned that

major Wall Street titans like

Charles Schwab are present and

give lots of money and that one

of the senior Koch executives,

in his sales pitch for why they

should donate to them as opposed

to any other conservative group,

was that "we can guarantee

anonymity."

>> PALAST: Chris Christie went

to this meeting without putting

it on his agenda.

His appearance was completely

secret.

No one in New Jersey knew that

he appeared before the Kochs and

their little billionaire confab.

>> NARRATOR: More and more,

like-minded billionaires,

regardless of politics, have

banded together to promote their

common interests.

The question is, are their

ideals really that different?

New York City.

A group of wealthy

philanthropists including Bill

Gates, Warren Buffett, David

Rockefeller Jr., Michael

Bloomberg and Oprah Winfrey meet

confidentially on the secluded

campus of Rockefeller

University.

Dubbed the "Good Club," the

powerful billionaires plan to

join forces in order to save the

world.

So what's the first thing on

their agenda?

Finding a way to shrink the

world's population.

>> RIVERO: I find it very

alarming that, with their

fortunes, they are, all of a

sudden, deciding they now have

the right to tell other people

whether they should or should

not have children.

>> JONES: Why is population

control the elite's number one

agenda?

Because they've already

dominated the globe through

their corporate and governmental

actions, and they really see it

as their possession, something

they own or something that

they're guardians of.

They're going to cut resources

off from the unwashed masses to

protect the planet.

>> NARRATOR: But is the

highly-secretive meeting really

what it seems?

Or could they be hiding another,

even more profound, agenda?

Watford, England.

Between 120 and 150 of the

world's most powerful

billionaires, politicians and

royals meet at the luxury Grove

Hotel for three days to discuss

global issues and broker

international deals.

The annual, private conference,

known as the Bilderberg Group,

is the world's most secretive

society of billionaires.

Named for the Bilderberg Hotel

in the Netherlands, where the

first meeting was held in 1954,

the alliance was created to

foster cooperation between

Europe and North America.

>> DICE: The level of security

at Bilderberg is like the level

of security at the CIA.

I mean, you're talking about

private security firms,

undercover officers, military

intelligence, thermal imaging

scanners.

That's power.

>> KRISTOL: I was once invited,

actually, to speak at the

Bilderberg Group, and it seemed

to be a group of pretty wealthy

people who sat around talking

about world issues for a couple

of days.

They seemed sometimes to be as

bewildered by what was going on

in the world as everyone else

is.

>> NARRATOR: The guest list of

the Bilderberg Group routinely

includes both conservative and

liberal power players.

Influential men and women, like

former United States Secretary

of State, Henry Kissinger,

chairman of Google, Eric

Schmidt, PayPal cofounder Peter

Thiel, and Amazon.com CEO, Jeff

Bezos.

>> JONES: The Bilderberg Group

is really the top of the pyramid

when it comes to secret

corporate meetings.

They get world leaders from all

over the planet together, and

then they try to lobby

government officials that are

there to go along with corporate

policies that will enrich them,

in many cases, at the expense of

other companies, individuals,

and national sovereignty.

>> NARRATOR: Some believe this

extremely covert group of

leaders also has ties to the

Illuminati, a secret society

dating back to the 18th century,

created to forge a New World

Order in which the ultra wealthy

conspire to dominate world

events.

>> Oprah! This way! Yeah!

>> DICE: When you get to that

level of a super-class, you're

talking about a wealth that most

people can't even fathom.

You're talking about shaping

nations, shaping societies,

shaping entire economies.

And they're doing that to

maintain that wealth and to use

that wealth to then forge the

kind of New World Order that

they have envisioned.

>> JONES: Most of the wealthy

people in this country who've

achieved that highest level of

success were chosen by an inside

track of elites to be promoted

to the positions they're in

today because they could be

trusted to continue to carry out

the Illuminati's agenda.

That is the ultimate secret of

the inside billionaire elite.

>> NARRATOR: Are the super-rich

really working together toward a

unified, one-world agenda?

One that threatens to make them

even more rich and powerful?

And, if so, can anyone stop

them?

(chanting)

>> NARRATOR: Zuccotti Park,

New York.

Hundreds gather to protest

against the one percent of

Americans who own 40% of its

wealth.

The movement becomes known as

"Occupy Wall Street," and

appears to catch fire across the

nation.

>> PALAST: Occupy Wall Street

started out with just a few

Canadians who said, we're gonna

sit down at a park in Wall

Street, and it became an

international phenomena.

And they had a simple message--

the rich are getting rich at

our expense.

>> We are the 99 percent!

>> RANSOM: The Occupy Wa

Street Movement talks about

redistributing property

throughout the world so that

everybody has, what they call, a

fair share of education, a fair

share of housing, a fair share

of banking, their fair share of

retirement, or what we would

think of as the American Dream.

>> FRANK: That gap between the

super-rich and the rest of

America is growing.

In 1980, the average CEO was

making around 42 times their

average employee wage.

Today, it's more than 350 times

the wage of the average

employee.

>> KROLL: Most of the

billionaires are alarmed by the

income gap, but I think that the

majority of them feel very

strongly that they are part of

the solution and not part of the

problem.

>> NARRATOR: But who was really

behind Occupy Wall Street?

Was it simply a spontaneous

grassroots movement, or perhaps

something more?

There are some who believe one

of the answers may have been

revealed in a Craigslist ad,

which actually offered to pay

protestors to show up.

>> SEITZ-WALD: If you have a lot

of money, you can influence the

political conversation in so

many different ways.

And a lot of that can be done

without being traced back to

you.

It allows them to create a kind

of faux grass roots appeal.

It makes it look like an issue

has a huge amount of public

support when it really could be

just a few people giving a ton

of money.

>> NARRATOR: But why would

America's wealthiest individuals

contribute to a movement that

protests the very system that

has made them rich?

There are many who believe the

answer can be found by examining

one of the places in which the

super-rich invest their

billions-- the media.

And that by controlling the

conversation, they can control

what the public knows... and

thinks, even when it comes to

the subject of income disparity.

>> SEITZ-WALD: Billionaires can

exert a subtle control over what

issues get put on the national

agenda.

So they can chose the issues

that they care about and make

sure that they get talked about

while others might not.

>> KROLL: Many billionaires

these days seem to be using at

least part of their money to

pick up media businesses.

The Boston Red Sox owner, John

Henry-- he picked up the Boston

Globe.

Pierre Omidyar, who was one of

the eBay cofounders, basically

starting his own media companies

from scratch.

>> NARRATOR: In August 2013,

Amazon.com's founder, Jeff Bezos

stunned the world by purchasing

the financially-troubled

Washington Post for $250

million.

The move caused some media

watchers to ask: why would a

savvy billionaire want to invest

so much money in what many

believed to be a dying media

format?

>> RANSOM: Jeff Bezos wanted to

be able to control the political

agenda that's coming out of the

Washington Post, which is one

of the flagship political organs

here in the United States.

It does make sense to buy a

media outlet in order for them

to build their platform.

>> KROLL: Fox News is owned by

Rupert Murdock.

And he certainly has shaped it,

in some ways, after what he's

interested in.

And the same with Michael

Bloomberg and Bloomberg News.

I think it's naive, perhaps, to

think that we can have these

media businesses operating

without anybody influencing

them.

>> SIEGEL: What really, really

compels the billionaire to

continue doing what they're

doing is to have a broader and

broader impact on the world.

It's about changing the course

of destiny.

>> NARRATOR: Could billionaires

really be using the media to

influence what Americans read,

watch, buy and even what they

think?

And, if so, what is their final

goal?

Some fear the ultimate strategy

of America's richest citizens

may just be to eliminate the

United States Government

altogether.

>> NARRATOR: Truth or

Consequences, New Mexico.

180 miles south of Albuquerque

lies Spaceport America, the

world's first ever commercial

launchpad built to take

American citizens into outer

space.

The $209 million project will be

home to billionaire Richard

Branson's Virgin Galactic, a

rocket company that has already

sold more than 600 tickets,

even though it has yet to make

its first commercial launch.

>> FRANK: Every billionaire

wants to go to space right now.

And it's only $250,000 for a

ticket.

>> NARRATOR: Some believe the

reason billionaires are spending

so much on traveling to the

beyond has to do with their

innate need to be in command.

Even Jeff Bezos has created a

private aerospace company called

Blue Origin.

But some wealthy are spending

their riches on even more

extreme ventures.

August, 2011.

Billionaire and venture

capitalist Peter Thiel invests

more than a million dollars in

The Seasteading Institute, a

nonprofit organization

developing independent floating

cities in international waters

to experiment with new ideas for

government.

>> SEITZ-WALD: Peter Thiel, a

tech billionaire, is literally

trying to start his own country.

In fact, many countries.

He wants to create floating

island nations where

billionaires would go off and

live on their own in the utopian

libertarian existence outside of

the U.S. territorial waters

where the government can't tell

him what to do.

>> KROLL: The stated goal is

to... to create this world where

you wouldn't be affected by U.S.

tax policies or U.S. Government

policies.

So it's this whole idea of

creating a completely new world

out in the middle of nowhere.

>> NARRATOR: Some experts

estimate the cost to build the

ocean community off the coast of

Northern California is upwards

of $200 million.

>> FRANK: So you're seeing more

and more kind of crazy schemes.

One of them is called Freedom

Ship.

It's gonna be a mile long,

house 50,000 people.

Basically, like an island for

the wealthy that will

circumnavigate the globe every

two years and you'll never have

to pay taxes.

>> NARRATOR: Could some of

America's billionaires be

hatching a plan to become a

nation unto themselves?

One with its own territory and

political agenda?

But if so, why?

>> FRANK: The super-rich are

increasingly separating

themselves from the rest of the

country.

They've got private jets.

They've got private communities.

They've got private islands.

It's really become a billionaire

bubble or a separate secret

country.

It's a breakaway country of

rich people.

>> PALAST: Billionaires are very

different from us.

They don't make money the way

normal people do.

They don't punch clocks.

They believe that they are the

anointed landlords of this

planet, and we just get to live

in it.

>> NARRATOR: Do billionaires

really feel they are smarter and

more qualified to make decisions

for the American public?

Is that, perhaps, what drives

their philanthropic, political

and economic agendas?

And could the wealthy be on a

secret mission to fix the planet

as they see fit, whether

citizens like it or not?

>> RANSOM: Everything that they

do with PR, everything that they

do with charity, everything that

they do with the secret lobbying

that goes on is really geared

towards one thing: maintaining

their status as billionaires.

Their first rule would be:

preserve that empire.

And that's what the billionaire

agenda really is.

>> MULLER: There are good ones,

bad ones.

But in the end, it's just very

hard for the regular person to

relate to them, but... but I

think it's a little too easy to

cast them all as evil.

>> FRANK: All of our lives are,

in some sense, either tied to or

controlled by the one percent

and the wealthy.

Whether we like it or not, they

spend so much.

They exert so much political

power.

I say, as go the wealthy, so go

the rest of America.

>> NARRATOR: Do American

billionaires really harbor a

global agenda?

One that seeks to control

everything from energy and food

consumption to health care and

even human reproduction?

And is it all being done not in

an evil quest for power but all

for our own good?

Or could the growing disparity

between rich and poor lead to

the collapse of the American

dream?

Perhaps the truth will only be

known when the have-nots begin

demanding answers and the

billionaire agenda is revealed.

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