20 Ultra-Rich American Families hold more Wealth than Lower American Population Combined

The extreme wealth of a few compared to the masses has been exposed in a report Billionaire Bonanza: The Forbes 400 and the Rest of Us. The article exposes the 400 wealthiest Americans within a context easy to visualize.

The authors describe the compelling image of the top 20 wealthy people: “America’s 20 wealthiest people — a group that could fit comfortably in one single Gulfstream G650 luxury jet –­ now own more wealth than the bottom half of the American population combined.”

Being wealthy is no cause for alarm. There are some who work extremely hard to achieve their wealth and status. But what the report proposes is several solutions to close the gap between the ultra-wealthy and the rest of the struggling population, including closing offshore tax havens as loopholes to million/billionaires to deal with the exploitation of the tax codes that the less wealthy struggle to keep up with.

Revisiting the image of the Gulfstream G650, where America’s 20 wealthiest people sit, enjoying their cocktails during their private soiree in the air while flying over the 57 million households it takes combined to reach their wealth, is considered an underestimate in the report. The Gulfstream G650 is probably flying to an offshore tax haven – concealed and difficult to track for reports such as this, therefore making the figures a loose basis of a true situation.

How theses few elite gain their wealth is a concern. As stated, many wealthy millionaires achieve their status through hard work. Most are self-made, some are heirs to their wealth. But when you examine the 2016 presidential candidates and campaign funding, the donations concentrate with 158 families.

These ultra-rich families influence the presidential race for the sake of which policy will be passed once the president is elected – to the benefit of their companies’ production. Some early donors for the 2016 presidential campaigns are the Wilks Family from Texas (earning billions from fracking) who donated $15 million, and the Mercer Family (Wall Street hedge fund magnate) who donated so far, $11.3 million.

Donors in the 2016 presidential campaign

Pulitzer Prize winning journalist David Cay Johnson discusses the results of a system where the middle and lower classes prop up the super wealthy through the income tax system.

“Policies that take from the many and redistribute to the already rich few through stealth techniques that rarely make the news but can be found in the public record. Among these policies are a failure to enforce the laws of business competition, severe restrictions on unions and subsidies galore for big companies.”

The massive debt system in place in the name of capitalism is a black hole that appears to be collapsing in on itself. The system above feeds this hole as fleecing of the lower classes continues. “The system is unsustainable and devouring itself.” [Anonymous Australian University professor, private source].

Johnson expands on the Forbes 400 report, “so think about that image — a top-of-the-line Gulfstream G650 jet and 160 million Americans, each with the same net worth. Now imagine a much smaller jet, with 12 or so oligarchs, and ask yourself just why you are paying taxes to enhance their fortunes instead of your nest egg.”

This Article (20 Ultra-Rich American Families hold more Wealth than Lower American Population Combined) is a free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to the author AnonWatcher and AnonHQ.com.