(a) The richest 1% in the USA own a trifling 38% of all stocks and shares – and since the taxpayer funded bailout (heist) of Wall Street in 2008 they have gained at least $6.1 trillion. That’s over $5 million for each of 1.2 million households.
(b) The next richest 4%, based on similar calculations, gained about $5.1 trillion. That’s over a million dollars for each of their 4.8 million households.
(c) The least wealthy 90% in the USA own only 11 percent of all stocks excluding pensions (which are fast disappearing). The frantic recent surge in the stock market has largely bypassed these families.
….
Evidence of soaring inequality in the US
(a) In 2009 the average wealth for almost half of American families was ZERO (their debt exceeded their assets).
(b) In 1983 the families in America’s poorer half owned an average of about $15,000. But from 1983 to 1989 median wealth fell from over $70,000 to about $60,000. From 1998 to 2009, fully 80% of American families LOST wealth. They had to borrow to stay afloat.
(c) The disparity got worse after the recession. According to a Pew Research Center study, in the first two years of recovery the mean net worth of households in the upper 7% of the wealth distribution rose by an estimated 28%, while the mean net worth of households in the lower 93% dropped by 4%. And then, from 2011 to 2013, the stock market grew by almost 50 percent, with again the great majority of that gain going to the richest 5%.
The Neoliberal solution? Take from the Poor (quelle surprise)
The US Congress has responded to the 2008 crisis by cutting unemployment benefits and food stamps, along with other ‘sequester’ targets like Meals on Wheels for seniors and Head Start for preschoolers. The more the super-rich make, the more they seem to believe in the cruel fantasy that the poor are to blame for their own struggles. (sound like anywhere else you know? Haze)
President Obama recently proclaimed that inequality “drives everything I do in this office.”
Indeed it may, but in the wrong direction.
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