Photo Credit: Shutterstock.com/katalinks
January 19, 2014
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It was shown in a recent
report that the richest Americans have made millions from their stock holdings since the recession.
It's getting worse. The facts are summarized here, and presented in greater detail at
Us Against Greed.
1. Just 13 Americans Made More from Their Investments in 2013 than the Entire SNAP Budget
Some wealthy Americans like to refer to themselves as "makers," and food stamp recipients as "takers," even though
most of
the latter are children, the elderly, or low-wage workers. Many of the
top 13 on the Forbes list did not make anything of significance in 2013.
Yet by being heavily invested in the stock market they were able to
take
$80 billion among them, more than
a year of food stamps for
almost 50 millionpeople.
2. The Richest 400 Took $300 Billion in 2013, Approximately the ENTIRE Safety Net
The total
budget for
SNAP, WIC (Women, Infants, children), Child Nutrition, Earned Income
Tax Credit, Supplemental Security Income, Temporary Assistance for Needy
Families, and Housing is less than the $300 billion 'earned' by the
Forbes 400.
3. The Richest 12,000 Families are Estimated to have Each Made $40 Million in the Past Year
The
stock market grew by
$4.7 trillion in 2013. The richest 1% owns about
38% of all stocks, or about $1.8 trillion of the 2013 gain.
At the lofty levels of the unimaginably rich, the takings of the .1%
(120,000 households), and even moreso of the .01% (12,000 households),
become progressively greater and greater for the very richest households
(unlike their taxes). According to wealth data compiled by
Kopczuk and Saez,
each member of the elite .01% group owns about 40 times the wealth of
an average member of the richest one percent. Assuming that this ratio
holds for accumulated 2013 wealth, each of the 12,000 super-rich
American families made about
$40 million in just one year. This is not an unreasonable conclusion, in light of the average gain of $750 million for each member of the
Forbes 400.
4. The Richest 400 Individuals Own More Than Three-Fifths of America
The richest 400 now own over
$2 trillion among them, or about 2.8% of the country's wealth of
$72 trillion. This is more than the holdings of
three-fifths of America, or 72 million families.
Conclusion: The System Is Broken
The overall
calculations reveal that, to the best approximation:
--The richest 400 individuals made an average of $750,000,000 each in 2013.
--The .01% (12,000 families) made about $40,000,000 each.
--The .1% (120,000 families) made about $3,600,000 each.
--The rest of the 1% (1,068,000 families) made over $830,000 each.
--The 2-5% (4,800,000 households) made about $300,000 each.
--The 6-10% (6,000,000 households) made about $95,000 each.
--The 11-20% (12,000,000 households) made about $39,000 each.
--The 21-40% (24,000,000 households) made about $13,000 each.
--The 41-60% (24,000,000 households) made about $4,000 each.
--The 61-80% (24,000,000 households) made about $333 each.
--The bottom 20% (24,000,000 households) made nothing.
Capitalism is supposed to provide everyone the opportunity to benefit
from our country's productivity. But it hasn't worked that way for the
past 35 years. Today only the people who already have money can increase
their wealth. Congress doesn't seem to recognize, or doesn't care, that
the system is horribly distorted in favor of a small group of people
who need to do very little to take most of the wealth.
Paul Buchheit is a college
teacher, a writer for progressive publications, and the founder and
developer of social justice and educational websites
(UsAgainstGreed.org, PayUpNow.org, RappingHistory.org).
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