According to Forbes latest list of the 400 wealthiest Americans, the wealth of the super-rich has grown in the last year. Meanwhile, as the wealthy get wealthier, the middle class continues to reduce in size, widening yet more the gap between the wealthy and the poor.
Rich get wealthier, claims Forbes
About 12.5 percent of the economy is made up by the 400 wealthiest citizens in our country, according to NBC News. These 400 individuals, according to Forbes, saw a $1.7 trillion increase in total net worth, or a 13 percent increase, in the last year.
The average net worth per person in the 400 is higher than it has ever been at $4.2 billion.
There was a rise in income for 261 of the 400, mostly due to the rebounding real estate industry and stock growth.
Rich not anything brand new
The list contained familiar and expected names. The rankings of the top five remained the same from 2011, although their net worth had risen: Bill Gates, Buffett, Larry Ellison, Charles and David Koch (tied for fourth) and Christie Walton.
The worth of Bill Gates increased $7 billion to $66 billion. The chairman of Microsoft has been at the top of the list for the last 19 years. There was an $8 billion boost seen by Larry Ellison of Oracle Group regardless of the belief that Warren Buffett only saw his worth rise by $7 billion.
Minority report
A notable exception to the trend of increasing net worth was social network mogul Mark Zuckerberg, who lost almost half of his net worth after his cash cow Facebook went public. This year, he is scraping by on $9.4 billion.
Much bigger gap
In a separate study last week, the Economic Policy Institute found that the gap between the wealthiest Americans and the typical family has more than doubled during the last half-century. According to the report, the country’s top one percent of earners made about 125 times that of a middle-income household in 1961. In 2010, it had escalated to a ratio of 288 to one.
The income of most Americans has dropped in recent decades, according to the study. However, as we have seen, the worth of the rich elite continues to climb.
The Economic Policy Institute report learned that the gap was increased a ton since the Good Recession started, in spite of the fact that it has been taking place for a long time.
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