Six of the wealthiest billionaires in the U.S. are worth at least $100 billion, according to data collected by Forbes for its 2021 listing of billionaires that is being circulated by the groups Americans for Tax Reform and the Institute for Policy Studies.
The organizations have been calling for higher taxes on the rich while decrying the concentration of economic power in comparatively few hands. They are buttressing their position with Forbes data that shows there are 719 U.S. billionaires.
At the top is Amazon”™s Jeff Bezos whose holdings gained 74% over the last 13 months to reach nearly $197 billion. Elon Musk, founder of Tesla and Space-X, saw a 599% increase in net worth during the pandemic to reach $172 billion. Microsoft founder Bill Gates saw his holdings increase in value 33% since March 2020.
The fortune of Facebook”™s Mark Zuckerberg doubled in 13 months to reach $113.5 billion. Warren Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway had a 50% increase, coming in at $101 billion. Oracle founder Larry Ellison is now worth $101 billion, having had a 71% run-up since March 2020.
The Forbes list includes some names that either have or had Westchester connections, such as Ralph Lauren, George Soros, Jamie Dimon, David Shaw and Donald Trump. Trump was number 432 on the Forbes list with a net worth of $2.356 billion, up from the 2020 figure of $2.1 billion.
In Connecticut, billionaires on the list included Ray Dalio, Steve Cohen, Bradley Jacobs, Alexandra Daitch and Lucy Stitzer.
“This pandemic billionaire wealth surge is a grotesque milestone after three decades of wealth steadily flowing to the top,” said Chuck Collins, director of the program on inequality at the Institute for Policy Studies. “Congress should act to restore taxes on the wealthy and limit further democracy-distorting concentrations of wealth and power.”
The organizations said that there has been a 19-fold increase in billionaire wealth over 31 years, from an inflation-adjusted $240 billion in 1990 to $4.56 trillion in 2021. They said that more than a third of the growth in billionaire wealth has come during the coronavirus pandemic.
Federal Reserve Board data was cited showing that America”™s 719 billionaires held over four times more wealth than all the roughly 165 million Americans in society”™s bottom half.
“It”™s not just during the pandemic: Billionaires have been running up the score on average Americans for decades,” said Frank Clemente, executive director of Americans for Tax Reform. “The way to reverse this trend is by making sure the wealthy, and the corporations they own, start paying their fair share of taxes.”
