Here's how rich people can help fix America

The stock market is too damn high!

I’m not talking about stocks being overvalued (though that too.) I’m talking about too many rich people, making too much money.

I’m only being slightly facetious.

Here's the thing folks, (as Joe Biden likes to say.) Super-affluent people in this country are accumulating wealth in massively disproportionate amounts—while the rest of us are falling further behind.

I know you’ve heard it before: Wealth inequality is bad, (blah blah blah) and the stock market’s going to the moon while the real economy is struggling (blah blah blah.)

Well you need to hold the blah blah for a second and listen up, because this is getting serious.

Truly.

Here’s a headline that says it all: “U.S. Billionaires Gained $1 Trillion Since The Pandemic Started,” (from $2.9 trillion on March 18 to $3.9 trillion on November 24, to be precise.) This, while millions of Americans lost their jobs and countless others struggle to find food, never mind the 14.2 million stricken by COVID-19 and the 276,000 dead.

Let’s dig into the super rich a bit more though, because what’s going on there really has become obscene.

Consider the 650 billionaires in the U.S. A recent study found that 29 of them have seen their wealth double since March. Another nugget: 47 individuals joined the list. This is during a pandemic, mind you! Here’s a spreadsheet with all manner of outrageousness. Like that Elon Musk’s net worth grew by more than $100 billion this year, and Jeff Bezos’ mushroomed by $70 billion and Dan Gilbert of Quicken Loans saw his fortune grow by some 575% to almost $44 billion.

And get this: The top 1% of Americans now hold $34.23 trillion of wealth, while the bottom 50% have $2.08 trillion, according to the Federal Reserve. In other words, the top 1% of the country has 16.5 times more money than the bottom half. Are you kidding me?

Isn’t it always that way, you ask? Actually no, not at all. In Q3 1989, (the furthest back the data goes) the wealthiest 1% had $4.81 trillion, while the lowest 50% had $.76 trillion—or only 6.3 times more. And as we’ve seen that ratio kept getting bigger.

Source - https://finance.yahoo.com/news/heres-how-rich-people-can-help-fix-america-130505600.html