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1 Percent Has Sapped $79T in Wealth From Bottom 90 Percent Since 1975
Key Excerpts from Article on Website of Truthout
Posted: March 19th, 2025
https://truthout.org/articles/sanders-1-percent-has-sapped-7...
Five years ago, researchers for RAND found that roughly $47 trillion earned by the working class between 1975 and 2018 was instead given to the richest 1 percent, in 2018 dollars. This calculation was based on calculations of the growth of the bottom 90 percent in the decades after World War II, when income distribution held steady between groups. In a new analysis published last month by RAND extending the analysis to 2023, RAND found that that figure is now $79 trillion in 2023 dollars, with inflation accounting for roughly $10 trillion of the growth. In 2023 alone, $3.9 trillion was redistributed from the bottom 90 percent to the top 1 percent — enough to give every worker a raise of $32,000 per year. In 1975, RAND found in its most recent report, the bottom 90 percent of Americans received about a third of all taxable income in the U.S. That share dropped to 47 percent by 2019, with over half of income going instead to the top 10 percent. If rates of income growth had remained equitable from the rates prior to the 1970s, the median household income today would be double what it is now, the analysis found. According to a recent analysis by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, President Donald Trump’s tax proposals ... would provide $36,320 yearly in tax savings to the richest 1 percent, or people with incomes of over $914,900 a year. Meanwhile, the bottom 95 percent of Americans would see a tax increase.
Note: Two-thirds of all new wealth created since the pandemic has been captured by the 1%. For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on financial inequality.
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