Topline
While global coronavirus infection has reduced large segments of the economy, resulting in the United States experiencing the fastest increase in its poverty rate in more than 50 years, the accumulated net worth of a billion the country has grown by $ 1.1 trillion over the past decade, according to a new report from the Institute for Policy Studies and Americans for Tax Fairness.
SpaceX owner and Tesla CEO Elon Musk will stand on the red carpet of the Axel Springer 2020 Award on … [+]
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Key facts
According to the report, which was based on Forbes data, America’s total fortune of 660 billion as of January 18 had risen to $ 4.1 trillion, representing an increase of 38.6% compared to their net realizable value in mid-March 2020.
On average, the fortunes of 15 billion billionaires increased 58.7%, and some, such as Elon Musk, are up more than 500%.
At the beginning of the pandemic, there were 614 billion people in the United States; that number has risen to 660, with 46 billion new cuts cut over the last ten months.
Key background information:
The rift between those at America’s real economic ladder and those at the center and bottom was enormous before the devastation caused by the pandemic to the U.S. economy. That separation has widened. According to a study released Monday by economists Bruce Meyer of the University of Chicago and James Sullivan of the University of Notre Dame, America’s poverty rate rose 2.4 percent points over the last six months of 2020. That’s the biggest increase since the 1960s and is almost double the largest annual increase in poverty over the past 50 years. An additional 8 million people across the country are now estimated to be impoverished, with Black Americans (up 5.4 percentage points) representing an unequal share of those entering poverty. More than 70 million people (or about 40% of the workforce) have filed unemployment claims in the U.S. since the outbreak began.
Tangent:
According to an IPS and ATF press release, the benefits made by American billionaire during the pandemic could “pay for all relief for working families” in a $ 1.9 trillion incentive package President Joe Biden, “while leaving the richest families in the country worse off than their predecessors” with the advent of the coronavirus.
Quote Cruise:
“US billionaires separate from the rest of society, a distinct kind of social distance. Fortune is on the rise as most Americans face unprecedented health and economic challenges, ”Chuck Collins, director of the IPS Inequality Program, said in a post -d gu Forbes. “We are further shrinking our social content – the sense of closeness that binds us together. ”
Large number:
$ 2.4 trillion. That’s the total amount of wealth of the 165 million Americans that make up the lower half of the population, which is $ 1.7 trillion less than the county’s 660 billion-year-old wealth.
Further reading:
Billionaire Wealth up almost 40%, 10 months to emergency (IPS)
US suffers fastest rise in poverty rate in more than 50 years (Chicago Tribune)
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