A record share of the nation’s wealth is in the hands of billionaires, who pay a lower tax rate than the average American. This is indefensible
On Tuesday, the Congressional Budget Office released a study of trends in the distribution of family wealth between 1989 and 2019.
Over those 30 years, the richest 1% of families increased their share of total national wealth from 27% to 34%. Families in the bottom half of the economy now hold a mere 2%.
Robert Reich, a former US secretary of labor, is professor of public policy at the University of California, Berkeley and the author of Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few and The Common Good. His new book, The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It, is out now. He is a Guardian US columnist. His newsletter is at robertreich.substack.com
