Anyone reviewing the data is likely to conclude that there must be some mistake. It doesn't seem possible that one out of twenty American families could each have made a million dollars since Obama became President, while the average American family's net worth has barely recovered. But the evidence comes from numerous reputable sources.
Some conservatives continue to claim that President Obama is unfriendly to business, but the facts show that the richest Americans and the biggest businesses have been the main—perhaps only—beneficiaries of the massive wealth gain over the past five years.
• $5 Million to Each of the 1 Percent, and $1 Million to Each of the Next 4 Percent
From the end of 2008 to the middle of 2013 the total U.S. wealth increased from $47 trillion to $72 trillion. And about $16 trillion of that is financial gain (stocks and other financial instruments).
The richest 1 percent own about 38 percent of stocks and half of are non-stock financial assets. So they've gained at least $6.1 trillion (38 percent of $16 trillion). That's over $5 million for each of 1.2 million households.
The next richest 4 percent, based on similar calculations, gained about $5.1 trillion. That's over a million dollars for each of their 4.8 million households.
The least wealthy 90 percent in our country only own 11 percent of all stocks excluding pensions, which are fastly disappearing. The frantic recent surge in the stock market has largely bypassed these families.
• Evidence of Our Growing Wealth Inequality
This first fact is nearly ungraspable: In 2009 the average wealth for almost half of American families was zero (their debt exceeded their assets).
In 1983, the families in America's poorer half owned an average of about $15,000. But from 1983 to 1989 the median wealth fellfrom more than $70,000 to about $60,000. From 1998 to 2009, about 80 percent of American families lost wealth and they had to borrow as a way to stay afloat.
It seems the disparity couldn't get much worse, but after the recession, it did. According to a Pew Research Center study, in the first two years of recovery the mean net worth of households in the upper 7 percent of the wealth distribution rose by an estimated 28 percent, while the mean net worth of households in the lower 93 percent dropped by 4 percent. 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 percent.
Today our wealth gap is worse than that of third-world economies. Out of all developed and undeveloped countries with at least a quarter-million adults, the U.S. has the fourth-highest degree of wealth inequality in the world trailing only Russia, Ukraine and Lebanon.
• Congress' Solution: Take from the Poor
Congress has responded 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.
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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