New data released Monday explains the numbers behind Sen. Bernie Sanders’ often-cited statistic that the three richest Americans hold more wealth than the 160 million people who make up the bottom 50% of the population.
Washington Post columnist Greg Sargent published what he called “stunning” findings from Stanford University economist Gabriel Zucman, showing how both an explosion in annual earnings by the rich and an increasingly regressive tax structure have combined to allow the top 1% of Americans’ wealth to triple over the past five decades.
Meanwhile, working people are taking home just $8,000 more per year than they did in 1970.
In what Sargent called “the triumph of the rich, which is one of the defining stories of our time,” the richer a household is, the more its take-home wealth has grown in the past 50 years.
New data:
— Greg Sargent (@GregTSargent) December 9, 2019
For top 1%, average income has risen by $800,000 since 1970.
For top 0.1%, it has risen by $4 million.
For top .01%, it has risen $20 million.
Bottom 50%? $8,000.
All this is *after taxes and transfers.*
Great work from @gabriel_zucman:https://t.co/iaxntlHdvl
Article submitted by, ScottInManhattan.
