America’s billionaires made tremendous wealth gains during the pandemic, topping 55% or $1.6 trillion, according to a new analysis of Forbes data from two think tanks, who call the trend “troubling.”
“Billionaire wealth growth has perversely accelerated over the 13 months of global pandemic. But the piling up of fortunes at the top has proceeded at a rapid clip for decades even as the net worth of working Americans lagged and public services deteriorated,” according to a recent report.
Whether measured over 13 months or 31 years, the growth of U.S. billionaire wealth “is both astounding and troubling,” according to a new analysis of Forbes data from left-leaning think tanks Americans for Tax Reform (ATF) and the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS). Both groups support President Biden’s proposed corporate tax increases and his plan to tax wealthier households with $400,000 or more in annual income.
Between March 18, 2020, and April 12, 2021, the collective wealth of American billionaires increased from $2.95 trillion to $4.56 trillion, a 55% leap, “Billionaires” reported. “The increase in billionaire wealth alone could pay for nearly 70% of the 10-year, $2.3 trillion cost of President Biden’s proposed jobs and infrastructure plan—the American Jobs Plan,” according to the report.
“Congress should act to restore taxes on the wealthy and limit further democracy-distorting concentrations of wealth and power,” Chuck Collins, Director of the Program on Inequality at IPS said in a statement. “This pandemic billionaire wealth surge is a grotesque milestone after three decades of wealth steadily flowing to the top.”
The wealth boom helped create six American “centi-billionaires”—individuals each worth at least $100 billion--as of April 12. “That’s bigger than the size of the economy of of 13 of the nation’s states,” the report said. Here’s how the wealth of the six ultra-billionaires grew during the pandemic:
- Amazon’s Jeff Bezos has a net worth of nearly $197 billion, up 74% over the last 13 months, making him almost “double-centi-billionaire.” If Bezos was still married to ex-wife MacKenzie Scott, they’d be worth another $60 billion or so—giving the couple a net worth of a quarter trillion dollars.
- Elon Musk, founder of Tesla and Space-X, has $172 billion, which rose 599% during the pandemic.
- Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, clocked in at $130 billion, up 33% since March 2020.
- Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, has $113.5 billion, a fortune that more than doubled (up 108%) in 13 months of the pandemic.
- Berkshire Hathaway’s Warren Buffett is worth $101 billion, an increase of 50% during the pandemic.
Billionaires’ significant pandemic-era wealth expansion comes on top of a 19-fold increase in billionaire wealth over the past 31 years—from an inflation-adjusted $240 billion in 1990 to $4.65 trillion in 2021, the report stated.
According to the analysis, more than a third of the $4.3 growth in billionaire wealth from 1990 to today was created amid the past 13 months of the pandemic.
“It’s not just during the pandemic—billionaires have been running up the score on average Americans for decades,” Frank Clemente, executive director of Americans for Tax Fairness, said in statement. “The way to reverse this trend is by making sure the wealthy, and the corporations they own, start paying their fair share of taxes. President Biden is proposing to do just that so we can finally build an economy that works for working families.”
In a move that made headlines across the globe, Bezos climbed aboard the Biden tax train last week. “We support the Biden Administration’s focus on making bold investments in American infrastructure. We look forward to Congress and the Administration coming together to find the right, balanced solution,” he said in a statement on Amazon’s website.