SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
To donate by check, phone, or other method, see our More Ways to Give page.
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
The wealthiest 3 billionaires in the U.S. - Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett -- now have as much wealth as the bottom half of the U.S. population combined.
Those were the first words spoken at last week's 2020 Democratic Debate, citing a wealth inequality study by the Institute for Policy Studies.
In fact, Sen. Bernie Sanders mentioned the study, Billionaire Bonanza, several times during the debate.
Fact checkers at The New York Times, the Washington Post and CNN verified Sen. Sanders' claims.
These extreme levels of wealth inequality are possible, in part, because the bottom fifth of U.S. households are underwater, with zero or negative net worth. And the next fifth has so few assets to fall back on that they live in fear of destitution.
"We're developing into a plutocracy," said former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker.
Some more powerful IPS statistics from our latest edition of Billionaire Bonanza: One troubling indicator that we are drifting toward a society governed by the wealthy is the expanding fortunes of multi-generational wealth dynasties.
The three wealthiest U.S. families are the Walton's of Walmart, the Mars candy family, and the Koch brothers, heirs to the country's second largest private company, the energy conglomerate Koch Industries. These are all enterprises built by the grandparents and parents of today's wealthy heirs and heiresses.
These three families own a combined fortune of $348.7 billion, which is four million times the median wealth of a U.S. family.
Since 1982, these three families have seen their wealth increase nearly 6,000 percent, factoring in inflation. Meanwhile, the median household wealth went down 3 percent over the same period.
The dynastic wealth of the Walton family grew from $690 million in 1982 (or $1.81 billion in 2018 dollars) to $169.7 billion in 2018, a mind-numbing increase of 9,257 percent.
Political revenge. Mass deportations. Project 2025. Unfathomable corruption. Attacks on Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Pardons for insurrectionists. An all-out assault on democracy. Republicans in Congress are scrambling to give Trump broad new powers to strip the tax-exempt status of any nonprofit he doesn’t like by declaring it a “terrorist-supporting organization.” Trump has already begun filing lawsuits against news outlets that criticize him. At Common Dreams, we won’t back down, but we must get ready for whatever Trump and his thugs throw at us. Our Year-End campaign is our most important fundraiser of the year. As a people-powered nonprofit news outlet, we cover issues the corporate media never will, but we can only continue with our readers’ support. By donating today, please help us fight the dangers of a second Trump presidency. |
Chuck Collins is a senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies where he co-edits Inequality.org. His near future novel "Altar to An Erupting Sun” explores one community’s response to climate disruption. He is author of numerous books and reports on inequality and the racial wealth divide, including “The Wealth Hoarders: How Billionaires Spend Millions to Hide Trillions,” “Born on Third Base,” and, with Bill Gates Sr., of “Wealth and Our Commonwealth: Why American Should Tax Accumulated Fortunes.” See more of his writing at www.chuckcollinswrites.com
The wealthiest 3 billionaires in the U.S. - Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett -- now have as much wealth as the bottom half of the U.S. population combined.
Those were the first words spoken at last week's 2020 Democratic Debate, citing a wealth inequality study by the Institute for Policy Studies.
In fact, Sen. Bernie Sanders mentioned the study, Billionaire Bonanza, several times during the debate.
Fact checkers at The New York Times, the Washington Post and CNN verified Sen. Sanders' claims.
These extreme levels of wealth inequality are possible, in part, because the bottom fifth of U.S. households are underwater, with zero or negative net worth. And the next fifth has so few assets to fall back on that they live in fear of destitution.
"We're developing into a plutocracy," said former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker.
Some more powerful IPS statistics from our latest edition of Billionaire Bonanza: One troubling indicator that we are drifting toward a society governed by the wealthy is the expanding fortunes of multi-generational wealth dynasties.
The three wealthiest U.S. families are the Walton's of Walmart, the Mars candy family, and the Koch brothers, heirs to the country's second largest private company, the energy conglomerate Koch Industries. These are all enterprises built by the grandparents and parents of today's wealthy heirs and heiresses.
These three families own a combined fortune of $348.7 billion, which is four million times the median wealth of a U.S. family.
Since 1982, these three families have seen their wealth increase nearly 6,000 percent, factoring in inflation. Meanwhile, the median household wealth went down 3 percent over the same period.
The dynastic wealth of the Walton family grew from $690 million in 1982 (or $1.81 billion in 2018 dollars) to $169.7 billion in 2018, a mind-numbing increase of 9,257 percent.
Chuck Collins is a senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies where he co-edits Inequality.org. His near future novel "Altar to An Erupting Sun” explores one community’s response to climate disruption. He is author of numerous books and reports on inequality and the racial wealth divide, including “The Wealth Hoarders: How Billionaires Spend Millions to Hide Trillions,” “Born on Third Base,” and, with Bill Gates Sr., of “Wealth and Our Commonwealth: Why American Should Tax Accumulated Fortunes.” See more of his writing at www.chuckcollinswrites.com
The wealthiest 3 billionaires in the U.S. - Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett -- now have as much wealth as the bottom half of the U.S. population combined.
Those were the first words spoken at last week's 2020 Democratic Debate, citing a wealth inequality study by the Institute for Policy Studies.
In fact, Sen. Bernie Sanders mentioned the study, Billionaire Bonanza, several times during the debate.
Fact checkers at The New York Times, the Washington Post and CNN verified Sen. Sanders' claims.
These extreme levels of wealth inequality are possible, in part, because the bottom fifth of U.S. households are underwater, with zero or negative net worth. And the next fifth has so few assets to fall back on that they live in fear of destitution.
"We're developing into a plutocracy," said former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker.
Some more powerful IPS statistics from our latest edition of Billionaire Bonanza: One troubling indicator that we are drifting toward a society governed by the wealthy is the expanding fortunes of multi-generational wealth dynasties.
The three wealthiest U.S. families are the Walton's of Walmart, the Mars candy family, and the Koch brothers, heirs to the country's second largest private company, the energy conglomerate Koch Industries. These are all enterprises built by the grandparents and parents of today's wealthy heirs and heiresses.
These three families own a combined fortune of $348.7 billion, which is four million times the median wealth of a U.S. family.
Since 1982, these three families have seen their wealth increase nearly 6,000 percent, factoring in inflation. Meanwhile, the median household wealth went down 3 percent over the same period.
The dynastic wealth of the Walton family grew from $690 million in 1982 (or $1.81 billion in 2018 dollars) to $169.7 billion in 2018, a mind-numbing increase of 9,257 percent.