The Incredible Unfairness Of Wealth In The U.S. Economy

The United States has one of the most unfair economies in the developed world. There is a huge gap between the richest Americans and the rest of America -- a gap in income and wealth as large as it was just before the Great Depression, and it keeps growing worse.

It was not always this way. Because of the Great Depression, Congress (mostly Democrats) passed a number of laws that made the economy fairer. Unfortunately, when Republicans regained enough power in the 1980's, they started dismantling those laws. That has created an economy that is slanted to reward the rich at the expense of everyone else.

The chart above and the post below (from Common Dreams) show how bad those GOP economic policies have been.

Adding to the mountain of statistical evidence showing the severity of U.S. inequality, an analysis published Friday found that the top one percent of Americans gained $21 trillion in wealth since 1989 while the bottom 50 percent lost $900 billion.

Matt Bruenig, founder of the left-wing think tank People's Policy Project, broke down the Federal Reserve's newly released "Distributive Financial Accounts" data series and found that, overall, "the top one percent owns nearly $30 trillion of assets while the bottom half owns less than nothing, meaning they have more debts than they have assets."

The growth of wealth inequality over the past 30 years, Bruenig found, is "eye-popping."

"Between 1989 and 2018, the top one percent increased its total net worth by $21 trillion," Bruenig wrote. "The bottom 50 percent actually saw its net worth decrease by $900 billion over the same period."

"Enormous crisis," Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) tweeted in response to Bruenig's analysis.

"We have the worst inequality in this country since the 1920s," wrote Jayapal, co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. "Three wealthiest people in America have as much wealth as the bottom 50 percent."