Global wealth concentration has reached extreme, quantified levels over the past decade

Evidence

In the US, the so-called middle class keeps shrinking while the disparity in wealth grows: the top 0.1 percent owns more than five times the wealth of the bottom 50 percent, and three people have more wealth than 150 million Americans combined. And the problem is not limited to this country. In Britain, the richest 1 percent hold more wealth than 70 percent of the population combined. Since 2014, the number of children living in poverty in the UK has grown to one in three, while in the same period the number of billionaires has sextupled. Globally the superrich saw extraordinary gains in 2022 and 2023: for every 1 of new wealth earned by a person in the bottom 90 percent, each billionaire gained roughly 1.7 million. — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 27

Categorization

• SHARE: The ‘for every 1 of new wealth earned by a person in the bottom 90 percent, each billionaire gained roughly 1.7 million’ statistic is a devastating single-shot figure for an economics-savvy friend.
• CANDY: Three people owning more wealth than 150 million Americans is a striking dinner-party number.
• XREF: connects to: Wealth concentration has accelerated dramatically across major economies — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism: An Intervention, 27; Two-thirds of recent global wealth went to the top one percent — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism: An Intervention, 382; Capital returns exceeding economic growth rates drive extreme income divergence — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 135 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Wealth concentration has accelerated dramatically across major economies #corroborates (0.85) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 27
• Two-thirds of recent global wealth went to the top one percent #corroborates (0.85) — Clara E. Mattei, Escape from Capitalism, 382
• Capital returns exceeding economic growth rates drive extreme income divergence #expands (0.80) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 135
• Asset distribution drives wealth inequality and social stratification. #expands (0.75) — Paul Langley, Assets and Assetization in…, 8
• Rentier income share rose broadly across OECD countries in recent decades. #corroborates (0.75) — Greta R. Krippner, The Financialization of the American…, 16
• Top-end wealth concentration intensifies pressure on lower households to maintain relative lifestyles. #expands (0.72) — Neil Fligstein & Adam Goldstein, The Emergence of a Finance Culture in…, 40
• Favorable tax treatment of gifts and inheritances compounds white wealth across generations #expands (0.70)