Tuesday, March 30, 2021

Sanders Scolds the Rich

 


Bernie Sanders has pointed to the statistics that show the wealth inequality in the United States.

"Over the past 40 years there has been a massive transfer of wealth from the middle class and working families to the very wealthiest people in America," he explains.

 The top 1% now own more wealth than the bottom 92%, and the 50 wealthiest Americans own more wealth than the bottom half of American society – 165 million people. 

The two richest people in America, Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk, now own more wealth than the bottom 40% of Americans combined.

While millions of Americans have lost their jobs and incomes during the pandemic, over the past year 650 billionaires have seen their wealth increase by $1.3tn.

In 1978, the top 0.1% owned about 7% of the nation’s wealth. In 2019, the latest year of data available, they own nearly 20%.

"...If income inequality had not skyrocketed over the past four decades and had simply stayed static, the average worker in America would be earning $42,000 more in income each year. Instead, as corporate chief executives now make over 300 times more than their average employees, the average American worker now earns $32 a week less than he or she did 48 years ago – after adjusting for inflation. In other words, despite huge increases in technology and productivity, ordinary workers are actually losing ground..."

Sadly, Sanders' solutions is merely to raise the destitution-level minimum wage to poverty-level $15 an hour and to raise the taxes on an elite who are skilled in the many ways of tax-evasion.

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