At the end of 2019, the United States had 788 billionaires (a 12% increase over 2018), and they controlled $3.4 trillion of the nation's wealth (14% more than was controlled by billionaires in 2018). There were more billionaires in the U.S. than the next 8 countries combined.
Republicans will tell you that is the mark of a successful economy. That is not true. At the same time, the U.S. has the largest percentage of people living in poverty in the developed world -- and that percentage is once again growing. And there are millions of workers out of a job -- a number that is also growing.
This has resulted in the largest income and wealth gap between the richest Americans and the rest of America since the Great Depression -- and that gap continues to grow larger. As the rich get richer, most other Americans struggle to stashed of inflation with their stagnant wages.
This was caused by Republican economic policies instituted about 1980 (when they seized enough power to alter the country's economic policies). They have tilted the economic playing field to favor the rich -- to the detriment of all other Americans. They want you to believe that giving more to the rich benefits everyone -- that the rich's extra wealth trickles down to everyone.
That is a lie. Money does not trickle down in a capitalist system. It flows upward. Giving more to the rich doesn't help everyone -- it just fattens the bank accounts of the rich. And the more wealth and income hogged by the rich just means there is less left for everyone else in the country.
It does not have to be this way. Prior to 1980, rising productivity was shared with workers and everyone benefitted. It can be that way again, but not until the Republicans are voted out of power.
