Tweets on US income and wealth inequality

https://t.co/LnNEUHJL2S
— Robert Reich (@RBReich) February 20, 2023

New CBO report: The poorest *half* of America — ~150 million people — hold only *2 percent* of the country's total wealth

Wealth of top 10 percent has grown markedly since 1989

That tiny little line at the bottom of this chart is half the country pic.twitter.com/L3uLba3ht0
— Jeff Stein (@JStein_WaPo) September 28, 2022

NEW: income inequality in US & UK is so wide that while the richest are very well off, the poorest have a worse standard of living than the poorest in countries like Slovenia https://t.co/gtHvhNsnuT

Essentially, US & UK are poor societies with some very rich people.

A thread: pic.twitter.com/fXFsULsrQ3
— John Burn-Murdoch (@jburnmurdoch) September 16, 2022

Wealth inequality in the U.S. has continued to intensify during the coronavirus pandemic. A recent Forbes Advisor survey of 2,000 people shows 78% of U.S. adults have little-to-no room to stretch their budget to cope with rising inflation. https://t.co/wzlZpP95pR
— MarketWatch (@MarketWatch) July 24, 2022

The Congressional Budget Office has determined that over the past 30 years:

A. The share of total wealth held by the top 1% rose from 27% to 34%.

B. The share of wealth held by the bottom 50% fell from 4% to 2%.

Face it, America is an oligarchy.https://t.co/3hW6ndp1Tv
— John Nichols (@NicholsUprising) September 29, 2022

NEW: Wages rose fastest for the top 1% and 0.1% of earners in 2021, while the bottom 90% took a pay cut.

Inequality has skyrocketed over the past 40 years. This growing inequality isn’t inevitable—it is a result of policy choices to reduce worker power. https://t.co/h1Ex1MdaAX pic.twitter.com/WQYPjiqkjO
— Economic Policy Institute (@EconomicPolicy) December 21, 2022

The top 1% has more wealth than the whole middle class

I think they can afford to pay more taxes to help the country.

Per the Federal Reserve, the top 1% of households (1M) now officially have more wealth than the entire middle class (78M families). Let that sink in. And then remember why we’re building back better. cc: @business pic.twitter.com/B5y1uZW1wL
— Steven Rattner (@SteveRattner) October 8, 2021

Income and wealth inequality update 7/11/21

https://t.co/vnJN75JqV7
— Robert Reich (@RBReich) July 11, 2021

Owning stocks ‘a privilege of the few’: Betterment CEO (yahoo.com)

The aggregate net worth gain of U.S. households in the 12 months through March (Federal Reserve data):
–Bottom half: +36%
–Top half: +33% pic.twitter.com/uxPexCmn9a
— Bruce Mehlman (@bpmehlman) June 23, 2021

Over the last 36 years, income grew by 60% — but that growth wasn’t shared equally across all groups. https://t.co/qTKcBCO2jG
— Peterson Foundation (@pgpfoundation) June 18, 2021

What's behind the $220 billion Black American wage gap?

Shelley Stewart III of @McKinsey discusses with Bloomberg's Karen Toulon on this week's Black in Focus https://t.co/advtvYzV1e pic.twitter.com/0otGcNSvV5
— Bloomberg Equality (@bbgequality) June 18, 2021

It’s strange that an extra dollar an hour paid to the lowest-earning worker is so much more costly than the extra $50 million paid to a CEO. Seems a functioning political system might figure out a way to use the tax system to reverse that situation. https://t.co/jlOuCeXcx6
— Ron Charles (@RonCharles) June 13, 2021

The richest 0.1% own 17% of stocks

The richest 1% own 50% of stocks

The bottom 50% own 0.7% of stocks

Repeat after me:

The stock market is not the economy.
— Robert Reich (@RBReich) February 18, 2021

Why Rising Inequality Doesn’t Stimulate Political Action @NiskanenCenter https://t.co/q8B7r2UMJl
— Thomas Edsall (@Edsall) July 14, 2021

Raise the minimum wage to $15

That still won’t keep up with inflation since the last increase.

Americans support a $15 an hour minimum wage.

Our latest polling finds 63% of voters in favor of raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, including 86% of Democrats, 61% of Independents, and nearly half of Republicans. https://t.co/V6yehOeZMy pic.twitter.com/tOjDg1EaJg
— Data for Progress (@DataProgress) February 2, 2021

Opinion | Adriana Alvarez: A minimum wage raise by Congress to $15 an hour would change lives — as it changed mine. https://t.co/M81xGYWmFd – @NBCNewsTHINK
— NBC News (@NBCNews) February 23, 2021

𝟴𝟯% of Americans say the current $7.25 federal minimum wage is not enough.

• 𝟯𝟱% say it should be $13-15
• 𝟮𝟵% say it should be $10-12
• 𝟭𝟯% say it should be more than $15https://t.co/zbOc9Ks1Qn
— Frank Luntz (@FrankLuntz) February 23, 2021

Everything you need to know about the debate over the $15 minimum wage https://t.co/kRcSmKoeB4
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) February 23, 2021

Minimum wage and inflation: These two charts show how much workers have fallen behind – CNNPolitics

A $15 minimum wage belongs in the relief package. Why?

💵 Half of all essential workers make minimum wage
💵 It'll lift 900k people out of poverty
💵 It’ll give 27 million workers a raise
💵 It's been 12 years since the last raise
💵 No one in America should starve, period
— Pramila Jayapal (@PramilaJayapal) February 16, 2021

Want to see a store with a $16.30 minimum wage?

It's my store. Get the fuck out of here that billion dollar corporations can't afford $15. pic.twitter.com/mTsdO6QqoZ
— Ryan Higgins (@RyanHigginsRyan) February 9, 2021

CBO says raising minimum wage to $15 would reduce poverty but increase the deficit and cost jobshttps://t.co/GPfU0UEPCT
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) February 9, 2021

Raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour — a proposal supported by President Biden — would result in the loss of 1.4M jobs, but would bring nearly 1M people out of poverty over the next 4 years, government study finds. https://t.co/44ucHGuwfC

(1/5) #NBCNewsThreads
— NBC News (@NBCNews) February 8, 2021

That prediction of a deficit pile-up could work in Sanders’ favor as he fights to include the minimum wage increase in the package Democrats are crafting to enact President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion stimulus plan. https://t.co/xXF7033KNv
— Christopher Cadelago (@ccadelago) February 8, 2021

67% of Americans support raising minimum wage to $15 hour but it can be filibustered by 41 GOP senators representing just 21% of country. This is why the Senate is deeply broken
— Ari Berman (@AriBerman) February 6, 2021

Discussing the prospects of increasing the minimum wage and the political battles ahead on @SXMPOTUS @SIRIUSXM ! Join the conversation! https://t.co/EawlBMtqvX
— Laura Coates (@thelauracoates) February 2, 2021

Your reminder that the people who would benefit from a higher minimum wage:

(1) Average age 35, not teenagers.

(2) Full-time workers, not working part-time.

(3) Often major breadwinners in their family, not living with their parents.#RaiseTheWage pic.twitter.com/jXmxrAukw1
— Robert Reich (@RBReich) February 2, 2021

If wages had kept pace with productivity gains since 1968, the current minimum wage would be more than $24 an hour.

That’s today. Not 5 years from now. Today.
— Robert Reich (@RBReich) January 27, 2021

President Biden’s push for $15 an hour minimum wage faces strong headwinds in Senate https://t.co/c29S4g3JoU
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) January 28, 2021

The Congressional Budget Office's estimate of potential outcomes for a raised minimum wage ranges from Sen. Rand Paul's claim of "nearly 4 million" to “about zero." https://t.co/WcqZf6die8
— USA TODAY (@USATODAY) January 23, 2021

U.S. billionaire wealth in 2010: $1.5 trillion
U.S. billionaire wealth in 2020: $3.9 trillion

Federal minimum wage in 2010: $7.25
Federal minimum wage in 2020: $7.25

Does anyone else see a problem with this picture?
— Robert Reich (@RBReich) January 26, 2021

Inequality news 2/15/21

The wage gap between White and Black Americans has widened in the past 20 years to roughly $33,000 per U.S. households — and we all pay a price for it.@tonydokoupil takes a look at what this actually means for Americans' wallets. pic.twitter.com/VRRn5iYXcY
— CBS This Morning (@CBSThisMorning) February 15, 2021

Due to COVID, Americans’ life expectancy has dropped 1.2 years. For Black Americans, it’s down 2.1 years; for Latinos, 3 years. https://t.co/EnHSeMJZMR
— Mother Jones (@MotherJones) February 14, 2021

Anyone see a pattern here? pic.twitter.com/A0QqLGQ7EV
— Robert Reich (@RBReich) February 6, 2021

World's richest people added $1.8 trillion to their combined wealth in 2020 https://t.co/26zolHwal2 pic.twitter.com/lyBOxn1pZy
— The Hill (@thehill) January 2, 2021

One thing here is "inequality" denotes several different possible forms of inequality.

This has not been a "billionaires vs the 99 percent" kind of inequality moment, it's more like "a broad class of comfortable people vs another broad class of precarious ones." https://t.co/wsQxQgjbLd
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) December 30, 2020

The Covid Divide: The pandemic economy has hurt some, but helped others – CNN

The real looting in America. https://t.co/HSGO3c19nS
— Robert Reich (@RBReich) September 15, 2020

If income had been distributed as evenly over the past five decades as it was in 1970, the median full-time worker in the U.S. would now take home $92,000 a year (instead of $50,000), according to a new RAND study. https://t.co/q16D0bZjYU
— Eric Levitz (@EricLevitz) September 14, 2020

Inequality update 12/30/20

56 new billionaires.

Same old shitty minimum wage.

Our great nation needs a wage we can ALL live with- in dignity. #FightFor15 https://t.co/BOmD9grQt5
— John Fetterman (@JohnFetterman) December 30, 2020

As the pandemic has dragged on, and as the gap has widened in how Americans experience it, some experts have grown less sure that lessons of empathy and unity from the Great Depression can apply today. https://t.co/MMZfFJt6Se
— The New York Times (@nytimes) December 28, 2020

Billionaire wealth
2009: $1.3 trillion
Now: $4 trillion

Top 10% wealth
2009: $40 trillion
Now: $81 trillion

Upper-middle class wealth
2009: $18T
Now: $33T

Corporate profit
2009: $5T
Now: $7.8T

Stock market
2009: 9,000 points
Now: 30,000

Minimum wage
2009: $7.25
Now: $7.25
— Dan Price (@DanPriceSeattle) December 19, 2020

Over the last 40 years:

—Wages for the top 0.1% grew 345%

—Wages for the top 1% grew by 160%

—The share of wages for the bottom 90% shrunk

Unfettered capitalism has pulverized the working class.
— Robert Reich (@RBReich) December 15, 2020

In 2018, the average CEO of America’s 350 largest firms made $17.2 million, 278x more than the average employee

In 1965, those CEOs made 20x more than the average employee
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) December 15, 2020

The richest 1% own 15x more wealth than the bottom 50% combined. Wealth inequality is eating this country alive.
— Robert Reich (@RBReich) December 14, 2020

The story of America today is a tale of two lines: a surging stock market, and the line-ups at food banks. I’m the richest country on the world, tens of millions of Americans are going hungry in the midst of Covid https://t.co/85nG6CbTZC
— Ali Velshi (@AliVelshi) November 26, 2020

$1,200. One time. In the wealthiest nation. During a global pandemic. https://t.co/CBrW1c3ZHy
— Alencia Johnson (@AlenciaJohnson) November 22, 2020

Wealth inequality facts and figures

Covid isn’t just disproportionately killing people of color; it’s sticking them in a feedback loop that exacerbates economic and racial inequity, says Chicago economist Damon Jones.https://t.co/hGuqRNLZqZ
— POLITICO (@politico) October 16, 2020

Stocks are soaring, and most Black people are missing out

On Cleveland’s east side, in mostly Black neighborhoods, tenants struggling with their rent are facing the prospect of eviction.

On the west side, in wealthier and whiter neighborhoods filled with homeowners, housing prices are soaring https://t.co/PaWU6yZNaQ
— Businessweek (@BW) October 6, 2020

The covid recession hit low-wage workers 8x harder than high-wage workers

NEW: The covid recession hit low-wage workers 8x harder than high-wage workers. We've never seen anything like that before.

This is the most unequal recession in modern US history — by far.https://t.co/ECT6E8xLQd w/ the great @andrewvandam & @alyssafowers #jobs #COVID19 pic.twitter.com/DA5BUxqhLT
— Heather Long (@byHeatherLong) September 30, 2020

Economic inequality

The path toward economic recovery in the U.S. has become sharply divided, with wealthier Americans earning and saving at record levels while the poorest struggle to pay their bills and put food on the table https://t.co/njtmcvZIzB
— POLITICO (@politico) September 7, 2020

My favorite fun fact that few people know, if the minimum wage had kept pace with productivity growth since 1968, as it did from 1938 to 1968, it would be $24 an hour today https://t.co/0zkt61Vrh3
— Dean Baker (@DeanBaker13) September 6, 2020

A simple way to depict the incredible accumulation of wealth at the top:

In 1980, on average the top 1% richest Americans owned 70 times the average US income in wealth

Today the top 1% richest Americans own 200 times the average US income in wealth pic.twitter.com/ZmR7Ua78w5
— Gabriel Zucman (@gabriel_zucman) August 30, 2020

It’s pretty hard to stun me. This stunned me. pic.twitter.com/rvuZI5lQXn
— Moshik Temkin (@moshik_temkin) August 17, 2020

"White households saw a 43% increase in their net worth between 1995 and 2016 while Black households’ net worth remained flat." pic.twitter.com/rR9sMZRxHf
— Pedro Nicolaci da Costa (@pdacosta) July 19, 2020

America, we have a problem https://t.co/E0oY203FDp by @serwer and @MaxZahn_ pic.twitter.com/OCBxBDzc6n
— Yahoo Finance (@YahooFinance) July 11, 2020

Remember, the richest 1% of Americans is responsible for 70% of all unpaid taxes.

It's the wealthy and corporations who are gaming the system, not the poor, sick, and elderly.
— Robert Reich (@RBReich) July 10, 2020

Taking into account not just workers, the wage gap between Black and white American men is the same as it was in the 1950s, ⁦@DLeonhardt⁩ calculates. https://t.co/nijh5AH4k5
— Peter Baker (@peterbakernyt) July 5, 2020

These 4 figures show the stark racial economic inequality across the U.S. https://t.co/5LRXG4Hm4p
— CNBC (@CNBC) June 30, 2020

Black families in the U.S. have 90% less wealth than white families—the gap has worsened over time (via @CNBCMakeIt) https://t.co/NPQQjaSOxL
— CNBC (@CNBC) June 27, 2020

In 2016, Black Americans earned 65% as much as white Americans at the median, up slightly from 59% in 1970 https://t.co/6fse2MAPfk See more on inequality at https://t.co/PrxB28cXSb pic.twitter.com/hx1QBPYQ7w
— Rakesh Kochhar (@RakeshKochhar) June 26, 2020

Thread: Published this piece yesterday aiming to dispel a couple of pesky myths about race/inequality in the US. One of which being that the Civil Rights Movement ended racial economic inequities. It did not. https://t.co/fJv7OG2w94
— Aaron Ross Coleman (@arcwrites) June 20, 2020

US black-white inequality shown in graphs

US black-white inequality in 6 stark charts https://t.co/IEuG5VDnr8
— Abby D. Phillip (@abbydphillip) June 3, 2020

In response to @itsafronomics's call to action I am going to make some observations as a macroeconomist. Black Americans’ share of wealth has hovered around 4% of total wealth for the past 30 years. People who account for more than 13% of the population hold 4% of the wealth..1/n pic.twitter.com/BGzeJYYEx6
— Dr Julia Coronado (@jc_econ) May 30, 2020

⚡️ “The black-white economic divide is as wide as it was in 1968”https://t.co/4scwRI19U9
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) June 5, 2020

This is just an incredibly damning graph about the public policy decisions we’ve made over the last thirty years. pic.twitter.com/RvEhdJGdEq
— Bharat Ramamurti (@BharatRamamurti) June 10, 2020

Black families in the U.S. have 90% less wealth than white families—the gap has worsened over time (via @CNBCMakeIt) https://t.co/NPQQjaSOxL
— CNBC (@CNBC) June 27, 2020

Income Inequality after the pandemic

It's hard to decide which of the graphs assembled here by @DLeonhardt & @iarynam is the most maddening and depressing. https://t.co/wK5GokmeN3
— Alec MacGillis (@AlecMacGillis) April 20, 2020

The economic toll from the #coronavirusoutbreak is falling more heavily on lower-income Americans. https://t.co/UtJt21Kuqw pic.twitter.com/UE8r3xOXRK
— Pew Research Center (@pewresearch) April 21, 2020