A New Billionaire Is Minted Every 2 Days, 3 Serious Proposals To Address The $ Divide
- "How the Age of Billionaires Ends. Serious proposals are on the table to address the deepening divide between the uber-rich and the rest of us." By Josh Hoxie, Common Dreams, Feb. 6, 2019. EXCERPTS:
Every month or so there’s a stunning new headline statistic about just how stark our economic divide has become. Understanding that this divide exists is a good start. Appreciating that a deeply unfair and unequal economy is problematic is even better. Actually doing something about it-- that’s the best.
As 2020 presidential hopefuls start trying to prove their progressive bona fides, serious policies to take on economic inequality are at the forefront. Let’s take a closer look at the problems they’ll have to address. A new billionaire is minted every two days, according to a recent Oxfam study.
As a result, the top 0.1 percent owns a greater share of the nation’s wealth than the bottom 90 percent combined.
The richest dynastic families in the United States have seen their wealth expand at a dizzying pace. The three wealthiest families—the Waltons, the Kochs, and the Mars—increased their wealth by nearly 6,000 percent since 1983.
In other words, the rich in the United States have accumulated a metric crap ton of money. And what are they doing with this immense wealth and power?
Dan Gilbert (#71 on the Forbes 400) just bought the world’s first mega-yacht, with an IMAX theater on it, for $100 million. Hedge fund billionaire Kenneth Griffin (#45) just broke the record for the highest price ever paid for a house — $238 million — for an apartment in Manhattan’s “Billionaires’ Row.”
Meanwhile, the rest of the country isn’t shopping for yachts and jets. Most families are forced to work longer hours for lower wages. Despite massive increases in growth and productivity, the median family saw their wealth go down over the past three decades, not up. The proportion of families with zero or negative wealth (meaning they owe more than they own) jumped from 1 in 6, to 1 in 5.
Relatedly, our roads and bridges our crumbling and our public schools are desperately underfunded.
It doesn’t take an economist to tell you this isn’t sustainable. So what about those policies to do something about it?...
MORE, https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/02/06/how-age-billionaires-ends
Oxfam Study, Public Good or Private Wealth? Jan. 20, 2019.
https://www.oxfamamerica.org/explore/research-publications/public-good-or-private-wealth/
The three wealthiest families- the Waltons, the Kochs, & the Mars- increased their wealth by nearly 6,000 % since 1983.
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