Wall Street minted 56 new billionaires since the pandemic began -- but many families are left behind

[demmiblue]

The bifurcated economy that took shape in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic destroyed the lives, savings and small businesses of innumerable Americans, but the year wasn’t a financial washout for everyone.

Between roughly mid-March and Dec. 22, the United States gained 56 new billionaires, according to the Institute for Policy Studies, bringing the total to 659. The wealth held by that small cadre of Americans has jumped by more than $1 trillion in the months since the pandemic began.

According to a December report issued jointly by Americans for Tax Fairness and the Institute for Policy Studies using data compiled by Forbes, America’s billionaires hold roughly $4 trillion in wealth — a figure roughly double what the 165 million poorest Americans are collectively worth. The 10 richest billionaires have a combined net worth of more than $1 trillion.

It’s a stunning snapshot of how the pandemic has distorted large sections of the real economy and exacerbated the nation’s stubbornly persistent economic inequality — one that persisted, largely along racial and ethnic lines — even in a pre-pandemic economy with unemployment at a half-century low.

https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/wall-street-s-best-year-ever-why-pandemic-has-been-n1252512

[BarackTheVote]

1. 56 newly minted billionaires

whose fortunes were derived from workers risking their lives out there and making a pittance for it. Tax the rich, redistribute the wealth to those whose sweat earned it!

[BarackTheVote]

4. Exactly! Your tax dollars to supplement their irresponsible behavior

[DanieRains]

5. Wikileaks Says The Top 10% Is Worth $74 Trillion

Being rich is cool.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wealth_inequality_in_the_United_States#:~:text=A%20September%202017%20study%20by,millionaires%20and%20billionaires%20by%202021.

[Claire Oh Nette]

6. small tax..

56 Billionaires.
WOuld not miss
1,000,000,000
- 10,000,000
-----------------

Looks to me like a small, 1% surtax on every single one of them would net the US who benefitted them so richly, $560,000,000

Looks to me like they'd never miss it, either.

2% would net a billion. Again, they'd never miss it.