The Top 500 Billionaires Earned More in 2020 Than 165 Million Americans Will in Their Entire Lives
12 million people owe roughly $6,000 USD in back rent.
Bloomberg‘s year-end report on the wealth of the world’s top billionaires shows that the richest 500 people on the planet added $1.8 trillion USD to their combined wealth in 2020, accumulating a total net worth of $7.6 trillion USD. Fueling the old saying “The rich get richer and the poor get poorer,” where 2020 was stricken with worldwide poverty due to the COVID-19 pandemic (loss of jobs and looming bills) The Bloomberg Billionaires Index recorded a historic 31 percent increase for the wealthy.
To put it all into perspective, Dan Price, entrepreneur and advocate for fair wages tweeted, “the 500 richest people in the world amassed as much wealth in 2020 as the poorest 165 million Americans have earned in their entire lives.” With this continued trend, the future does look bleak as it is forecasted that the pandemic is set to send over 207 million people into levels of “extreme poverty,” taking the toll to one billion by the year 2030. It was also revealed that 26 million Americans could not afford basic groceries which largely factored into the increase in crime last November. This issue will only get worse considering approximately 12 million people now owe roughly $6,000 USD in back rent to their landlords.
The list for the top five billionaires and their 2020 growth can be found below:
Top 5 Richest Billionaires
Jeff Bezos – $190 Billion USD (+$75.4B USD)
Elon Musk – $170 Billion USD (+$142B USD)
Bill Gates – $132 Billion USD (+$18.6B USD)
Bernard Arnault – $114 Billion USD (+$9.15B USD)
Mark Zuckerberg – $104 Billion USD (+$25.2B USD)
This is all U.S. wealth. If you squint, you can see a blue line showing every dollar half of Americans have.
Richest 10% have $81T
Poorest 50% have $2T
For every $100 in economic growth in the last 30 years, the top 10% got $71. The bottom half got $1.https://t.co/chy45I3wew pic.twitter.com/FtXXW8VIbf— Dan Price (@DanPriceSeattle) January 2, 2021
In other news, Elon Musk’s net worth grew 524% during COVID-19.
