20 people own as much wealth as half of all Americans
By Joshua Holland, Nation
The 400 richest Americans now have more wealth than the bottom 61 percent of the population, a report released last week by the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) reveals.
According to “Billionaire Bonanza: The Forbes 400 and the Rest of Us,” just the 20 individuals at the top of the pile—a group that could fit into a Gulfstream G650 luxury jet, according to the study’s authors—now control more wealth than the bottom half of the population. That’s 152 million people living in 57 million households.
And there’s a stark racial divide at the top. The 100 richest households own more assets than the entire African-American community (there are just two black people on the Forbes 400 list, one of whom is Oprah Winfrey). And just 182 individuals on the Forbes list have more assets than America’s entire Hispanic population.
But Chuck Collins, director of IPS’s Program on Inequality and the Common Good and a co-author of the report, tells the Nation that their study likely underestimates the scope of the problem. “Our wealth data is a tip of the iceberg,” he says. “So much wealth among the über-rich is hidden, either in offshore tax havens or in these loophole trusts where money is shuffled around into private corporate accounts or between different family members, and it disappears from taxation or any sort of oversight or accountability. So there’s a huge amount of escaped wealth that isn’t even factored into these statistics.”
There isn’t any data to suggest that this is anything but a number to incite a few to call for more taxation. These peoples kids will be poorer, and by the fourth generation the families will be back to square one and the money will have moved on. Yes it is possible to amass great wealth, but it is nearly impossible to get the second generation to keep it. So this is much ado about absolutely nothing.
Corrupt countries have a different problem. Wealth stays in families forever due to manipulation of the political system. There is no opportunity to move into the upper classes and so crime is the only way to get ahead.
The challenge is to get to know these guys and you know they have really nice boats for Fourth of July fireworks on the lake, woo hoo!
Moral Hazard-It’s a completely absurd idea that wealth inequality is not a devastating problem in our country-
If you don’t believe our political system is being manipulated by the wealthy and global corporations then you are severely misinformed or just willfully ignorant-
since the odious conservative SCOTUS Citizens United decision this un-American ‘corps are people/money is speech’ pantload has made the problem exponentially worse-One doesn’t need a degree in economics to know the system is rigged and the middle-class has disappeared because every GOP politician and some Democrats are ‘wholly owned subsidiaries’ of a few oligarchs and their business interests-
We need to fight back- http://www.feelthebern.org/bernie-sanders-on-economic-inequality/
Readers concerned about this topic might be interested in the following article from the December 9 Washington Post, “Income inequality has squeezed the middle class out of the majority.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/12/09/income-inequality-has-squeezed-the-middle-class-out-of-the-majority/
Totaled, if you think you deserve to have more money, you are perfectly free to go out and EARN it. Nobody is stopping you.
As to supporting Bernie Sanders; The man has zero understanding of economics. Zero. If he’s elected, you will all be equal, though. Equally miserable and poor. Except for the ruling junta. They’ll be comfy.
Wrongula-Sen.Sanders is the complete opposite of the lunatic fringe John Birch Society ideas that paint the picture of a soulless, me-me-me society with the likes of the putrid Koch Bros. as heroes and overseers-that’s why I support him over any other candidate-
Your hate gubmint nightmare policies that have been gaining ground since 1980 have ruined working families, the middle class and diminished everything that was good about our country- Ayn Rand/Milton Friedman et al. ‘selfishness is a virtue’ BS is forever just that- BS-
http://www.feelthebern.org/bernie-sanders-on-the-economy-and-jobs/
My “hate gubmint nightmare policies that have been gaining ground since 1980”??
Gaining ground? Really? Is government actually smaller now than it was in 1980?
Hahahahahahahahahahaha!
Everybody who’s running for President now will grow government and regulation even bigger, except maybe for Paul. And that’s a big maybe.
Well feel free to move to another country that supports your libretarian utopia. Oh thats right, there isnt such a place…whaaaa
Why should I leave? You’re the jerks trying to change the Constitution, not me.
Some peoples interpretation of the Constitution have the same credibility as their views regarding climate change, young earth nonsense and science denial in general-they need to be shunned and rejected
Absolutely, some people’s interpretations of the Constitution should be rejected. The same people who try to force their will on individuals, the smallest minority in existence. It is individual rights the Constitution sought to protect. NOT the collectivist bullies’.
Read some history.
A recent book review looked at a new one that hypothesized about the missing outrage (not the ideologic kind here that merely picks one or the other of the only two choices that are now offered)…
One scenario posited that the 99% may end up in a position not to be able to afford anything the 1% sells, leading to a complete system collapse. . .
Is that all that far-fetched, or not (?), in a country whose political system tries to earnestly steer away from many social solutions, fundamentally steering as many of the tax proceeds towards businesses that don’t really need it, even though they still lobby hard to get their hands on it. . . with politicos selling our system short (for election donations or ?) merely to continue this charade – all at our increasing expense – without even a proper peep. . . just (as here) continuing opinionated diatribe that leads nowhere. . .
Pay closer attention: the few enjoy most of the spoils; the rest get only crumbs to work with. . .& then let us fight (‘compete’ ?) for what little we can get to get things done
So where does the NRA fit into your “constitution is supposed to protect the individual “,not the “collectivist bullies”?
It would be a waste of my time to explain the right of the individual to self defense equal to that of his/her aggressor if you don’t get that already.
Exactly what I thought, cant…imagine that…