As the pandemic-fuelled U.S. unemployment rate approaches 15 percent, America’s billionaire class is experiencing a wealth surge.
Between March 18th and April 23th, as more than 26 million U.S. workers lost their jobs, the combined wealth of America’s billionaires increased by $308 billion, a 10.5 percent increase. After a brief decline, the collective wealth of 614 U.S. billionaires has surpassed than their 2019 levels.
The Jeff Bezos wealth surge is unprecedented in modern financial history. As of April 15, his fortune had increased by an estimated $25 billion since January 1, 2020. This is greater than the Gross Domestic Product of Honduras, $23.9 billion in 2018.
Between January 1, 2020 and April 10, 2020, 34 of the nation’s wealthiest 170 billionaires have seen their wealth increase by tens of millions of dollars.
Eight of these billionaires — the “pandemic profiteers” –have seen their net worth surge by over $ 1 billion.
Billionaires that have profited off of America’s urgent need for video conferencing, include Steve Ballmer of Microsoft, owner of Skype and Teams, and Eric Yaun, founder and CEO of Zoom.
Between 1990 and 2020, U.S. billionaire wealth soared 1,130 percent in 2020 dollars, an increase more than 200 times greater than the 5.37 percent growth of U.S. median wealth over this same period.
Between 1980 and 2018, the tax obligations of America’s billionaires, measured as a percentage of their wealth, decreased a staggering 79 percent.
The billionaire share of America’s increased wealth has risen throughout the past four decades. Between 2006 and 2018, nearly 7 percent of the real increase in America’s wealth went to the country’s 400 wealthiest households.
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