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.