“In this report, we show how billionaire wealth has grown astoundingly over the last few decades — and, for some “pandemic profiteers,” even more dramatically since the COVID-19 crisis — even as billionaire tax obligations have plummeted.”
[…]
Between January 1, 2020 and April 10, 2020, 34 of the nation’s wealthiest 170 billionaires saw their wealth increase by tens of millions of dollars. Eight have seen their net worth surge by over $1 billion.
As of April 15, Jeff Bezos’s fortune had increased by an estimated $25 billion since January 1, 2020. This unprecedented wealth surge is larger than the Gross Domestic Product of Honduras, $23.9 billion in 2018.
Between March 18 and April 10, 2020, over 22 million people lost their jobs as the unemployment rate surged toward 15 percent. Over the same three weeks, U.S. billionaire wealth increased by $282 billion, an almost 10 percent gain.
Billionaire wealth rebounded quickly after the 2008 financial crisis. Between 2010 and 2020, U.S. billionaire wealth increased 80.6 percent, more than five times the median wealth increase for U.S. households.
Between 1990 and 2020, U.S. billionaire wealth soared 1,130 percent — an increase more than 200 times greater than the 5.37 percent growth of U.S. median wealth.

Useat superrikkaat ovat vaurastuneet koronavirusepidemian aikaan - samalla kun monet tavalliset ihmiset kärsivät lomautuksista, työttömyydestä ja yhä heikommasta toimeentulosta. Tähän johtopäätökseen päätyy ajatuspaja Institute for Policy Studies raportissaan.

Esimerkiksi maaliskuun 18. päivän ja huhtikuun 10. päivän välillä Yhdysvalloissa yli 22 miljoonaa työntekijää menetti työpaikkansa. Samaan aikaan Yhdysvaltojen miljardöörien yhteenlasketun omaisuuden arvo nousi 282 miljardia, lähes 10 prosenttia.

Toisin sanoen samaan aikaan kun korona kuritti työntekijöitä, se paisutti entisestään superrikkaiden omaisuutta.

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