Best November ever for US stocks amid Main Street poverty
Ramin Mazaheri
Press TV, Chicago
The unequal gap between America’s rich and poor keeps widening at a record pace. Last month was the best November ever for stocks, yet across Main Street a once-in-a-century economic depression is being widely documented.
While about half of US retirees do rely on a 401k plan, which includes some stock ownership, the richest 10% of Americans own nearly 90% of all stocks.
Since the start of coronavirus lockdowns the top 10 US billionaires have now increased their wealth by 42%, or $127 billion. That 8-month increase is greater than the annual GDP of more than 130 nations. As much as the nation’s ongoing police brutality problems or current presidential election confusion, economic inequality has been a major driver of this year’s unprecedented political protests.
Data this week from the workers’ union-linked Economic Policy Institute revealed that from 1979 to 2019 the income of the richest 0.1% had risen 345%. Over that same time period the lower 90% of society has only seen a 26% increase, which is not close to covering the accumulated inflation.
Since 1979 so-called “trickle-down” or neoliberal economics, which prioritises corporations, slashes the role of government and neuters the power of workers unions has completely dominated the nation’s two-party political system.
In 2019 the United States had the worst income inequality among not just all very-developed nations, but across the entire West, excepting only Bulgaria. The economic catastrophe of 2020 will push the world’s richest nation even further down that list.
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