SOYMB blog makes no apology for repeating its message over and over again that under capitalism a small minority makes money from the misery of the masses.
There is Dan Gilbert, chairman of Quicken Loans, a company specializing in short and long-term personal loans and home mortgages. As people struggle to pay their bills, Gilbert’s wealth has grown 543 percent from $6.1 billion to $41.8 billion, the second highest increase among billionaires.
Millions of people have lost jobs during the pandemic and food and housing insecurity have skyrocketed to crisis levels.
More than 1 in 10 adults sometimes or often do not have enough money for food.
Last month, more than half of the country worried about affording food as the holidays approached.
About 34 percent of the country — roughly 83 million adults — report difficulty paying for basic expenses such as food, medical bills and mortgage payments.
An estimated 40 percent of children live in homes that are either behind on rent or facing food hardship, and rates of food insecurity are even higher among families of color.
At least 12 million people are now behind on rent, and housing activists are fighting evictions across the country despite a federal moratorium on evictions set to expire at the end of the month.
Alongside the surge in new COVID-19 cases, which topped 218,667 nationally on Wednesday, another 1.3 million people filed new unemployment claims last week.
If Congress fails to pass a relief package before year-end deadlines, 12 million people will lose their unemployment benefits after Christmas.
As of November 14, 20 million people were collecting unemployment nationally, according to the Labor Department.
Nearly 98,000 businesses have closed permanently.
Without housing assistance relief, an estimated 30 to 40 million people could lose their homes.
New Report Shows Top Billionaires’ Wealth Skyrocketing During Pandemic (truthout.org)
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