Poor Little Rich Scions: Inequality Among Billionaires

Our last post was about how wealth naturally flows from the poor to rich in society due to imbalances in power, access, opportunities, etc. And how inequality has been on the rise in the U.S. for decades. Today, according to the Fed, the top 1% of U.S. households controls $38.6 trillion of wealth or 31% of all wealth in the country. That's about 15.5x more than the bottom 50% combined!!

Well, if we took something like the top 0.001% of the Top 1%, would we get a similar distribution of wealth? Forbes puts out a list of the 50 richest families in the U.S. (This list covers multiple generations and is separate from the richest individuals list, who are considered self-made). Well the 50 richest families collectively control about $1.2 trillion of wealth. But it's certainly not evenly distributed. Not even close. (Click to enlarge)

The Waltons ($247B), the Kochs ($100B) and the Mars family ($94B) together control 30% of that $1.2 trillion. In fact, the top 5 families control ~60% of the wealth in this tiny, tiny, tiny slice of America. Yup, everything really is relative...