{"id":206745,"date":"2020-05-06T05:16:14","date_gmt":"2020-05-06T05:16:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=206745"},"modified":"2020-05-09T06:55:22","modified_gmt":"2020-05-09T06:55:22","slug":"americas-super-rich-see-their-wealth-rise-by-282-billion-in-three-weeks-of-pandemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=206745","title":{"rendered":"America\u2019s Super-Rich See Their Wealth Rise by $282 Billion in Three Weeks of Pandemic"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alan MacLeod \u2013 MintPress News April 27, 2020<\/strong><\/h1>\n

A<\/em>\u00a0<\/a>new report<\/strong><\/span><\/a>\u00a0from the Institute for Policy Studies found that, while tens of millions of Americans have lost their jobs during the coronavirus pandemic, America\u2019s ultra-wealthy elite have seen their net worth surge by $282 billion in just 23 days. This is despite the fact that the economy is\u00a0<\/a>expected<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>to contract by 40 percent this quarter. The report also noted that between 1980 and 2020 the tax obligations of America\u2019s billionaires, measured as a percentage of their wealth, decreased by 79 percent. In the last 30 years, U.S. billionaire wealth soared by over 1100 percent while median household wealth increased by barely five percent. <\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

In 1990, the total wealth held by America\u2019s billionaire class was $240 billion; today that number stands at $2.95 trillion.<\/em><\/strong> Thus, America\u2019s billionaires accrued more wealth in just the past three weeks than they made in total prior to 1980. As a result, just three people \u2013 Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Berkshire Hathaway\u2019s Warren Buffett \u2013 own as much wealth as the bottom half of all U.S. households combined.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

The Institute for Policy Studies\u2019 report paints a picture of a modern day oligarchy, where the super-rich have captured legislative and executive power, controlling what laws are passed. The report discusses what it labels a new \u201cwealth defense industry\u201d \u2013 where \u201cbillionaires are paying millions to dodge billions in taxes,\u201d with teams of accountants, lawyers, lobbyists and asset managers helping them conceal their vast fortunes in tax havens and so-called charitable trusts. The result has been crippled social programs and a decrease in living standards and even a\u00a0<\/a>sustained drop<\/a><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0in life expectancy \u2013 something rarely seen in history outside of major wars or famines.\u00a0<\/a>Few Americans believe<\/a><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0their children will be better off than they were. Statistics suggest they are right.<\/span><\/p>\n

Billionaires very theatrically donate a fraction of what they used to give back in taxes, making sure to generate maximum publicity for their actions. And they secure positive coverage of themselves by stepping in to keep influential news organizations afloat. A December\u00a0<\/a>investigation<\/strong><\/span><\/a>\u00a0by MintPress<\/em>\u00a0found that Gates had donated over $9 million to The Guardian<\/em>, over $3 million to NBC Universal<\/em>, over $4.5 million to NPR<\/em>, $1 million to Al-Jazeera,<\/em>\u00a0and a staggering $49 million to the BBC<\/em>\u2019s Media Action program. Some, like Bezos, prefer to simply outright purchase news organizations themselves, changing the editorial stance to\u00a0unquestioning<\/strong><\/span><\/a>\u00a0loyalty<\/a><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0to their new owners.<\/span><\/p>\n

The spike in billionaire wealth comes amid an unprecedented economic crash;\u00a0<\/a>26.5 million<\/a><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0Americans have filed for unemployment over the last five weeks, and that number is expected to continue to rise dramatically. While the super-rich are holed up in their mansions and yachts, the\u00a0<\/a>49-62 millio<\/strong><\/span>n<\/a>\u00a0Americans designated as \u201cessential workers\u201d must continue to risk their lives to keep society functioning, even as many of them do not even earn as much as the\u00a0<\/a>$600<\/a><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0weekly increase in unemployment benefits the CARES act stipulates. Many low paid workers, such as grocery store employees, have already fallen sick and died. The mother of one 27-year-old Maryland worker who contracted COVID-19 and died\u00a0<\/a>received<\/a><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0her daughter\u2019s last paycheck. It amounted to $20.64.<\/span><\/p>\n

Amazon staff, directly employed by Bezos, also risk their lives<\/a><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0for measly pay.\u00a0<\/a>One third<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>of all Amazon workers in Arizona, for example, are enrolled in the food stamps program, their wages so low that they cannot afford to pay for food. The vast contrast in the effect that COVID-19 has had on the super wealthy versus the rest of us has many concluding that billionaires\u2019 wealth and the poverty of the rest of the world are two sides of the same coin: that the reason people working full-time still cannot afford a house or even to eat is the same reason people like Bezos control more wealth than many countries. Bezos\u2019 solution to his employees\u2019 hunger has been to set up<\/a><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0a charity and ask for public donations to help his desperate workers.<\/span><\/p>\n

The majority of millennials, most of them shut out from attaining the American dream,\u00a0<\/a>already prefer<\/a><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0socialism to capitalism, taking a dim view of the latter. The latest news that the billionaire class is laughing all the way to the bank during a period of intense economic suffering is unlikely to improve their disposition.<\/span><\/p>\n

*<\/span><\/p>\n

Note to readers: please forward this article to your email lists. Crosspost on your blog site, internet forums. etc.<\/span><\/p>\n

Alan MacLeod<\/em><\/strong> is a Staff Writer for MintPress News. After completing his PhD in 2017 he published two books: Bad News From Venezuela: Twenty Years of Fake News and Misreporting and Propaganda in the Information Age: Still Manufacturing Consent. He has also contributed to Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, The Guardian, Salon, The Grayzone, Jacobin Magazine, Common Dreams the American Herald Tribune and The Canary.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While tens of millions have lost their jobs during the coronavirus pandemic, America\u2019s ultra-wealthy elite have seen their net worth surge by $282 billion in just 23 days<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[61,66,50],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-206745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-Commentary","category-Economics","category-The_Oligarchs"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=206745"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206745\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":206780,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206745\/revisions\/206780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=206745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=206745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=206745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}