The 3 million richest Americans have greater combined wealth than 291 million

[ck4829]

America's current economic woes are eliciting comparisons to the 1980s — another era with sky-high inflation, rising interest rates and jittery financial markets, not to mention a taste for heavy eye makeup.

But most Americans today are far worse financially than they were three decades ago, according to a new analysis from the Congressional Budget Office.

In 1989, the year "The Simpsons" first went on the air, the poorest 50% of Americans held 4% of the nation's total wealth. Thirty years later, their share of wealth has shrunk to 2%, the CBO found. As for the middle and upper-middle-class — households between 50% and 90% of the income distribution — their piece of the pie over shrank from one-third three decades ago to 26% in 2019.

By contrast, the top 10% of income-earners have increased their take and now hold two-thirds of total wealth in the U.S., with most of the gains concentrated among the top 1%.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-bottom-half-of-america-has-half-the-wealth-it-did-30-years-ago/

[jimfields33]

1. 97 million each for each of the 3 million.

535 of them are in congress.

[SharonAnn]

2. So, roughly, 1 person has more wealth than 99 together.

[OrlandoDem2]

3. And too many of the 291M are willing to carry the water for the 3M,

believing they too can make it.

Look, I believe in social mobility but we are a society and economy out of control. The rich have gamed the system and have all the advantages. Maybe, some of the poor could love to middle class but there is a ceiling that needs to be shattered for the rest of us to live comfortably.