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Trump’s 1% Hold More Wealth Than Bottom 90% of Americans

Predictably, wealth continues to trickle up to the Trump class. According to the Federal Reserve (which, predictably, Trump keeps slamming for dealing in facts rather than fascist fantasy), even the upper middle class is losing its share of America’s net wealth, and that wealth has shifted mostly to the top 1%:

Alexandre Tanzi, "America's Upper Middle Class Feeling the Pinch Too," Bloomberg, 2019.04.13.
Alexandre Tanzi, “America’s Upper Middle Class Feeling the Pinch Too,” Bloomberg, 2019.04.13.

Since 1989, the richest 1% of Americans have increased their share of America’s wealth from 23.6% to 30.9%. The bottom 90% have seen their share shrink from 39.0% to 30.3%.

Trump talks a lot about making working people’s lives better, but the data show he’s just another rich guy scratching your id while stealing your bones to hand to his country-club pals.

20 Comments

  1. bearcreekbat

    Ah, Cory nails it by identifying the tried and true Trumpy tactic of stimulating the old and trusted amygdala in so many folks with a weak or ineffective hippocampus response:

    “scratching your id while stealing your bones.”

    It is amazing that this ancient gaslighting technique still effectively empties the pockets of so many unwitting victims.

  2. Debbo

    The US is clearly a nonfunctional national economy.

  3. Roger Cornelius

    Today Trump filed his first quarter campaign financial report that recorded $30 Million in contributions.
    Is this the financial reward from the 1% for those outrageous tax breaks?
    How about that, the United States government is financing Trump’s campaign re-election bid.

  4. grudznick

    Is it possible even if the bottom 90% holds 9% less of the total wealth since 1989, that the total wealth has still grown so significantly that the bottom 90% is still wealthier overall than they were?

    And is it possible that this 1% at which jealous people rail simply worked harder and worked more to get more money? You know the secret to getting more money, right? Work harder.

  5. Roger Cornelius

    The 1% don’t need to work longer and harder hours, that is a myth, they employ workers at minimum wage.
    That 1% were the beneficiaries of the Trump’s tax give away that made them even wealthier.
    There are still many tax deductions in place for the wealthy including no tax on their airplanes and other toys.
    Does anyone actually believe that the 1% guy Trump is a self-made billionaire?

  6. John

    My fav candidate challenger is Andrew Yang as the ONLY candidate discussing AND addressing the economic tsunami that led to the 45th electoral college upset and perhaps re-upset.

    The rest of the demo candidates speak from the broken narrative as they strive for the graces of a disgraced, irrelevant private party that pick candidates for us.

    Not left, not right, Forward.

    https://www.yang2020.com/events/

    https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCriIuQZpMi6gEt_2P7xKCww

  7. Greg Deplorable

    I’d contend the bottom 50% have disabled themselves from a productive society since the advent of the smart phone. #thestruggleisreal.

  8. Debbo

    That’s funny Greg. Good one! 😆😆😆😆😆

  9. Jenny

    What’s really funny is when people likeGreg deplorable thinks that he’s a member of the elite and will defend the 1%. It is because of this super powerful one percent that we can’t have Medicare for all, that most workers live paycheck to paycheck because wages haven’t kept up with cost of living.
    Bernie’s Medicare for all would save money in the long run and if you don’t believe it, read his plan. We are really not a country in debt, We are a country run by a very very super super powerful elite that has rigged the system for everyone else.

  10. Jenny

    What’s also naive is believing that the one percent worked hard and played by the rules to get where they are. They got where they are, most of them, by paying poverty wages, starting wars for profit, paying off politicians and making money off of sick people. Also by hiding their vast billions in hidden banks around the world to get out of paying taxes. To the republicans that is just business as usual.

  11. cibvet

    Never thought this country would ever have so many deplorables that are proud to be racists and bigots.

  12. Greg’s hypothesis (or is that just a cheap shot?) is wrong: higher-income folks use smartphones more than lower-income folks:

    Income and education are related to smartphone ownership, internet use and social media use (see Appendix E for detailed tables). In every country surveyed, for example, better-educated and higher-income people are more likely to go online than those with less education or lower incomes. [Kyle Taylor and Laura Silver, “2. In Emerging Economies, Smartphone Adoption Has Grown More Quickly Among Younger Generations,” Pew Research Center, 2019.02.05]

    Try as Greg might, there is no way to justify the concentration of wealth among the Trump class as a product of their moral merit.

  13. Certain Inflatable Recreational Devices

    Watched the movie “Vice” last night. I then dreamed about it. This morning I keep wondering at how I tend to look back at the days of “W” as the good old days. They were horrible days, marked by a spiral of national morality into savagery. And the twitterpate45 administration is worse.

  14. o

    Steve, that Forbes article goes on . . .

    To be sure, the stereotype that billionaires are a cabal of anti-tax Republican cheerleaders is not entirely without evidence. While there are roughly equal numbers of billionaires that contribute more to liberal causes than conservative ones, the sheer size of the conservative-political warchest is extraordinarily lopsided: 82% of all donations from the Forbes 400 come from conservative-leaning billionaires ($46M vs $10M).

  15. Steve Pearson

    To Roger, if the donations were mostly under $200 then how is it the 1%?

  16. mike from iowa

    Updated May 15, 2018
    Mark Zuckerberg says he’s neither a Democrat nor a Republican. But his social media network, Facebook, has played a huge role in American politics, particularly the election of President Donald Trump in 2016.

    The Facebook co-founder and his company’s political-action committee have given tens of thousands of dollars to political candidates of both parties in recent years, a relatively small amount relative to the vast sums of money flowing through the election process. And the billionaire’s spending on campaigns does not tell us much about his political affiliation, a topic of much speculation.

  17. mike from iowa

    By BRAD TUTTLE September 5, 2018
    Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos is getting into politics. But it’s not what you might think: The world’s richest man and his wife, MacKenzie, just made their first major political donation.

    The money isn’t heading to a specific political party. Instead, they are giving $10 million to a nonpartisan fund aimed at helping to elect military veterans of all political backgrounds to Congress.

    Doesn’t sound Democrat to me.

  18. mike from iowa

    Buffett claims Berkshire Hathaway does not make political donations. He has backed HRC and Drumpf. No democrat smoking gun here.

  19. mike from iowa

    Gates says billionaires, like himself, need to pay more taxes. Makes him anti-wingnut.

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