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America's richest 400 are worth what?

The head reels and one cannot help but wonder why the really, really rich in the USA just don't get it - that is, that the profligate untold wealth of the truly wealthy doesn't cause envy but rather anger at the ever-increasing divide between rich and poor in the country.   Just reflect on the numbers in this piece on Counterpunch.

"In the supposedly classless society of the United States, the wealthiest Americans are doing remarkably well.

According to Forbes, a leading business magazine, the combined wealth of the 400 richest Americans has now reached the staggering total of $2.3 trillion.  This gives them an average net worth of $5.7 billion–an increase of 14 percent over the previous year.

With fortunes far beyond the dreams of past kings and potentates, these super-wealthy individuals enjoy extraordinary lifestyles.  Larry Ellison, the third wealthiest man in the United States (with $50 billion, an increase of 22 percent) reportedly has “15 or so homes scattered all around the world.”  Among his yachts are two exceptionally big ones, each over half as long as a football field.  In fact, they’re large enough for him to play basketball while on board.  If a ball bounces over the rail, Ellison has a powerboat following along to retrieve it.

Other Americans aren’t doing nearly as well.  According to the Census Bureau, more than 45 million Americans are living in poverty, which it defines as under $11,490 a year for an individual and under $23,550 for a family of four.  Many of them endure lives of hunger, misery, and despair, helped along by a Congress that has slashed billions from government food stamp programs, ended extended unemployment benefits, and refused to raise the minimum wage.

America’s middle class, plagued by stagnant income and declining wealth, has also suffered.  According to the Federal Reserve, between 2010 and 2013 median income in the United States fell by five percent.  Indeed, since 1989, the median net worth of the statistical middle class–the middle 20 percent of Americans–has dropped by nearly 18 percent.

Not surprisingly, economic inequality is growing in the United States.  From 1978 to 2013, CEO compensation, inflation-adjusted, grew by 937 percent, while the typical worker’s compensation over that same period grew by only 10 percent.  Thus, although the CEO-to-worker compensation ratio was 20-to-1 in 1965, it stood at 296-to-1 in 2013.  The same pattern prevails when it comes to wealth.  From 1989 to 2013, the wealthiest three percent of Americans increased their share of the wealth from 44.8 percent to 54.4 percent, while the bottom 90 percent found their share of the wealth dropping from 33.2 percent to 24.7 percent.  Today, the United States has the fourth most uneven income distribution among economically developed nations."

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