We've known that the wealthiest people in the country have been doing extremely well in the past decade or more. Income inequality has been there for everyone to see in the culture of social media and glorification of excess. Matt Bruenig, writing at the People's Policy Project, has taken statistics published by the Federal Reserve and singled out one incredible fact: since 1989, the top 1% has increased its total net worth by a staggering $27 trillion, while the bottom 50% have seen their net worth drop by $900 billion. From his analysis:
"What the final product reveals is a 2018 where the top 1 percent owns nearly $30 trillion of assets while the bottom half owns less than nothing, meaning they have more debts than they have assets. This follows from 30 years in which the top 1 percent massively grew their net worth while the bottom half saw a slight decline in its net worth." (our emphasis)Unfortunately for the bottom 50% and more, we don't have the one percent's tax attorneys and paid politicians at our command to tilt the table in our direction. We do have the ballot, and if we don't start using it by tilting the table back in our direction, there will be even greater income inequality going forward, especially with Rethuglicans in control. A good start would be tearing up Trump's 2017 tax giveaway of $1.7 trillion to himself and the super wealthy and multinational corporations.
(photo: Getty Images)
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