{"id":115109,"date":"2025-11-03T05:38:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-03T05:38:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/115109\/"},"modified":"2025-11-03T05:38:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T05:38:07","slug":"top-10-us-billionaires-collective-wealth-grew-by-698bn-in-past-year-report-us-income-inequality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/115109\/","title":{"rendered":"Top 10 US billionaires\u2019 collective wealth grew by $698bn in past year \u2013 report | US income inequality"},"content":{"rendered":"

The collective wealth of the top 10 US billionaires has soared by $698bn in the past year, according to a new report<\/a> from Oxfam America published on Monday on the growing wealth divide.<\/p>\n

The report warns that Trump administration<\/a> policies risk driving US inequality<\/a> to new heights, but points out that both Republican<\/a> and Democratic<\/a> administrations have exacerbated the US\u2019s growing wealth gap.<\/p>\n

Using Federal Reserve data from 1989 to 2022, researchers also calculated that the top 1% of households gained 101 times more wealth than the median household during that time span and 987 times the wealth of a household at the bottom 20th percentile of income. This translated to a gain of $8.35m per household for the top 1% of households, compared with $83,000 for the average household during that 33-year period.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, over 40% of the US population, including nearly 50% of children, are considered low-income, with family earnings that are less than 200% of the national poverty line.<\/p>\n

When pitting the US against 38 other higher-income countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the US has the highest rate of relative poverty, second-highest rate of child poverty and infant mortality, and the second-lowest life expectancy rate.<\/p>\n

\u201cInequality is a policy choice,\u201d said Rebecca Riddell, senior policy lead for economic justice at Oxfam America. \u201cThese comparisons show us that we can make very different choices when it comes to poverty and inequality in our society.\u201d<\/p>\n

The report outlines the way that systems in the US, including the tax code, social safety nets, and worker\u2019s rights and protections, have been slowly dismantled, allowing concentrated wealth to turn into concentrated power.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump\u2019s \u201cone big, beautiful bill\u201d<\/a>, passed by Congress in May, has been one of the \u201csingle largest transfers of wealth upwards in decades\u201d, according to the report, by cutting tax for the wealthy and corporations.<\/p>\n

But over the last few decades, Republicans have not acted alone.<\/p>\n

\u201cPolicymakers have been choosing inequality, and those choices have had bipartisan support,\u201d Riddell said. \u201cPolicy reforms over the last 40 years, from cuts to taxes and the social safety net, to labor issues and beyond, really had the backing of both parties.\u201d<\/p>\n

Policy recommendations outlined in the report fall into four categories: rebalancing power through campaign finance reform and antitrust policy; using the tax system to reduce inequality through taxes on the wealthy and corporations; strengthening the social safety net; and protecting unions.<\/p>\n

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These solutions can be tricky to carry out politically because of long-term stigmatization, particularly of social safety nets and taxation. The report refers to the concept of the \u201cwelfare queen\u201d popularized during Ronald Reagan\u2019s presidency in the 1980s, while taxation has always been seen as repressive for all rather than as a tool for addressing inequality.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s really needed is a different kind of politics,\u201d Riddell said. \u201cOne that\u2019s focused on delivering for ordinary people by really rapidly reducing inequality. There are sensible, proven reforms that could go a long way to reversing the really troubling trends we see.\u201d<\/p>\n

The report features interviews with community leaders who are actively working to reduce inequality, even as progress has seemingly stalled on the national stage. In one interview in the report, union representatives for United Workers Maryland said the current moment seems ripe with opportunity because many Americans are starting to see how the current set-up isn\u2019t working for them, but only for the people at the very top.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s brilliant that they see this as an opportunity,\u201d Riddell said. \u201cI love thinking about this moment as an opportunity to look around us and realize our broader power.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The collective wealth of the top 10 US billionaires has soared by $698bn in the past year, according…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":115110,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[138,219,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-115109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115109\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/115110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}