Inequality virus

In recent decades, during both normal and abnormal times, economic inequality in the United States has been increasing.

The Federal Reserve Board recently released its figures on wealth distribution in the United States as of the end of March. The wealthiest one percent are presumably quite happy. Their wealth increased $2.01 trillion to $41.52 trillion in the first three months of 2021, an increase of more than 5 percent.

Presumably, a disproportionate share of the increase has gone to those at the very top of the one percent. In 2020, according to the Federal Reserve figures, the wealth held by the one percent increased 14.88 percent. However, using the Bloomberg Billionaires Index figures, in 2020, the wealthiest ten US citizens, as of the end of the year, saw their wealth rise 47.9 percent bringing their total to $1.0685 trillion from $730.29 billion at the beginning of the year. The total holdings of the wealthiest ten as of the end of 2020, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, represents 2.69 percent of the total holdings of the wealthiest one percent using the Federal Reserve figures of their holdings then. This is up from 2.12 percent at the beginning of 2020.

These figures signify that among the wealthiest one percent, inequality is widening between the wealthiest of the wealthy and the rest of the one percent.

While the size of one’s wealth fluctuates all the time, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, as of June 23, 2021, the ten wealthiest US citizens had experienced an increase in their wealth since the start of the year of $166.79 billion for a gain of 15.7 percent.

During 2020, Musk’s wealth increased $142 billion and Bezos by $75.4 billion. The biggest winners so far this year have been Larry Page whose gain in wealth is $29.7 billion and Sergey Brin at $28.5 billion, both connected to Google, with Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg coming in a distant third with a gain of $23.3 billion. However, Zuckerberg’s total holdings still remain ahead of Page and Brin at $127 billion compared to their amounts of $112 billion and $108 billion.

Still leading the pack of multi-billionaires and having broken the $200 billion barrier is Jeff Bezos at $202 billion followed by Elon Musk at $180 billion and Bill Gates at $145 billion. Luckily for Gates, even if his divorce forces him to give up half of his wealth, at this point, both he and his soon to be ex would remain in the top 10 among US citizens.

Internationally, the biggest winners so far in 2021 are Bernard Arnault from France whose wealth has shot up $58.5 billion to $173 billion and Gautam Adani, described as an industrialist from India. His wealth has almost doubled by increasing $32.5 billion to total $66.3 billion. As the pandemic raged in the US in 2020, many of the wealthiest Americans experienced huge windfalls.

Adani may be having the same experience. His wealth grew rapidly as India experienced a spike in the pandemic although his wealth increased by $22.5 billion in 2020 to $33.8 billion by the end of the year.

Excerpted: ‘The Wealth Inequality Virus Persists’

Counterpunch.org