Wealth inequality is a big problem in the U.S., just take a look at this insane chart from the IPS and Forbes, showing how just three Americans had more wealth than the bottom 165 million! That chart, if updated, would only look worse as the trio have collectively gained over $130 billion over the past few years.
Last year, Pro Publica released documents showing the paltry taxes they, and other, billionaires pay, despite their vast wealth. The organization also provided a helpful PSA on how they do it. Well, it's tax season and Pro Publica now has a new data dump on income generated by the ultra-wealthy as well as celebrities and shows how that compares to ordinary Americans and the merely well-off. First, celebrities (click to enlarge):
Impressive. Clooney, Taytay, and Lebron make huge sums compared to, not just the typical American (that tiny square below Swift), but even the average 1 percenter! The average annual income of the top 1% is roughly $1M or just 1% of Lebron's. So, how do these stars' income compare to that of the really wealthy? What do we mean by that? Let a pre-slap Chris Rock explain: "Shaq is rich, the white man who signs his checks is wealthy."
Below is a chart (again, click to enlarge) of the Top 400 highest income earners 2013-2018. Our friends Clooney, Swift, and James don't even make this list, because you needed an average annual income of $110 million just to break in. You can barely see them (circled in red). Pro Publica does the math and helpfully notes that the typical American, earning $40K a year, would need to work 2,750 years just to make what the lowest-earning person in this group made in one! The Top 400 group includes a lot of tech titans, hedge fund managers, private equity moguls, and Walmart heirs. The highest earner in this group was Bill Gates, who generated, on average, $2.9 billion in income per year (presumably through stock dividends).
Well, this is income, not wealth. At least these people will be taxed at the highest income tax rate, right? Umm...no. Even though the highest tax bracket for the period covered above was 37%, the Top 400 earners, as a group, had a far lower effective tax rate of just 22%. Sure, it was still moderately higher than the effective rate the top 5% paid, but well below that of the merely rich, the 0.5% and 0.01%, who, as a group, had an effective tax rate of 29% and 27%, respectively. Ironically, it's the hard work of the lawyers, tax specialists, and financial advisors in that 1%-0.01% cohort that keeps the tax rates of the uber wealthy so low.
I wanna be a billionaire so f***in' bad
Buy all of the things I never had
Uh, I wanna be on the cover of Forbes magazine
Smiling next to Oprah and the Queen
--- Bruno Mars and Travie McCoy
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