The wealth of the billionaires of the United States grows 45% in a year of coronavirus pandemic

After a year of pandemic, billionaires americans They have seen their wealth increase by $ 1.3 trillion, a growth of almost 45%, with some of them multiplying their fortune by as much as 600%.

This is reflected in a report presented this Tuesday by the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS), a progressive Washington-based think tank, and Americans for Tax Fairness (ATF), a campaign demanding higher taxes on large fortunes and corporations.

The two entities put on the table the enormous profits of the richest during a pandemic that has left millions of people unemployed as an argument in favor of a tax reform in this regard.

“The pandemic has created an incredible increase in the wealth of the nation’s billionaires while tens of millions of Americans are left even further behind,” denounced in a statement Frank Clemente, the executive director of ATF.

657 BILLIONAIRES

The study presented today is a compilation of the evolution of the fortunes of the 657 Americans with a wealth of more than 1 billion dollars during the last year, based on calculations continuously published by Forbes magazine.

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The cutoff date chosen is March 18, on whose data Forbes based its annual list of billionaires last year and which roughly coincides with the beginning of the great restrictions due to the pandemic in the United States.

Between March 18, 2020 and March 18, 2021, American billionaires saw their wealth increase by just over $ 1.3 trillion, an increase of 44.6%.

THE RICH OF THE RICH

But the richest of the rich benefited even more: the 15 largest fortunes in the country earned 563,000 million, increasing their wealth by 82%. Currently, those fifteen people accumulate more than 40% of the wealth that American billionaires have.

In front of them is the head of Tesla, Elon Musk, which during the pandemic year became 559% richer thanks to the spectacular rally on the stock market of the electric vehicle company.

They also highlight the gains of other figures in the technology sector such as the founder of Amazon, Jeff Bezos (65 billion, a 58% rise) or Mark Zuckerberg, from Facebook, (47,000 million or 86% more).

The largest increases in general were also for entrepreneurs in that sector, with two of them managing to increase their wealth by more than 600%.

They are Bom Kim -founder of the South Korean e-commerce giant Coupang, which has starred in the biggest stock market debut of 2021- and the investor Dan Gilbert -founder of the loan company Quicken Loans and who has become the twentieth fortune of the country- .

THE TRIUMPH OF TECHNOLOGY

A dozen individuals, mostly linked to the digital world, saw their fortunes grow more than 300%, while another 19 are above 200% and another 48 managed to double their wealth at least.

Although billionaires from all walks of life have come out of the pandemic well, those linked to the technological world have managed to enrich themselves especially, with a 68% rise in their fortunes, compared to an advance of 37% for those in the world of finance and investments, for example.

In addition to the best-known names, other figures from the internet world have managed to multiply their fortunes in the last twelve months, such as the co-founder of the Zoom video conferencing service Eric Yuan or the three owners of the Airbnb rental portal, benefited by the IPO of your company.

In total, the United States already has 121 technology billionaires, not far from the 166 in the most common sector for large fortunes, that of finance.

During this pandemic year, 43 new people joined the club of those who have more than 1 billion dollars in the United States.

ARGUMENTS FOR A TAX INCREASE

Those responsible for the report insist that all these figures are a clear example of the need to increase taxes on the richest and support a proposal in this regard presented this month in the Senate by Democrat Elizabeth Warren.

The project raises an additional tax of 2% per year for taxpayers with fortunes of more than 50 million dollars and 3% for those with more than 1,000 million.

According to an analysis of these organizations, the measure would have raised 114,000 million dollars last year among billionaires and, together, would suppose an injection to the public coffers of about 3 trillion over 10 years.

“The speculators of the pandemic are making windfall profits at a time of widespread suffering for the majority,” said Chuck Collins, director of the Program on Inequality at the Institute for Policy Studies, in a note, highlighting how many of these fortunes have benefited from the closure of small businesses and the growing dependence on digital technologies that COVID-19 has brought.