Over just the past seven months—as millions lost their jobs and health insurance, tens of thousands of small businesses shuttered permanently, and more than 200,000 Americans were killed by the coronavirus—U.S. billionaires saw their combined net worth surge by more than $930 billion, bringing the collective wealth of just 644 people to a staggering $3.88 trillion.
The new analysis shows that a handful of billionaires “have seen a particularly astonishing increase in wealth” over the past seven months:
- Jeff Bezos’ wealth grew from $113 billion on March 18 to $203 billion on October 13, an increase of 80%. Adding in his ex-wife MacKenzie Scott’s wealth of $65.7 billion on that day and the two had a combined wealth of more than a quarter of a trillion dollars thanks to their Amazon stock.
- Mark Zuckerberg’s wealth grew from $54.7 billion on March 18 to $101 billion on October 13, an increase of 85%, fueled by his Facebook stock.
- Elon Musk’s wealth grew from $24.6 billion on March 18 to $92.8 billion on October 13, an increase of 277%, boosted by his Tesla stock.
- Dan Gilbert, chairman of Quicken Loans, saw his wealth rocket by 656%, to $49.2 […]
Is history repeating itself? After the Civil War America had a long period of industrial growth which resulted in monopolies headed by the “barons of industry.” It took Theodore Roosevelt to break these monopolies up because of their restraint in trade. Next came the War period of 1914 to 1945 (with 10 years of rest between 1919 and 1939). Since then America has also had a long period of growth resulting in the very large global corporations which dominate our economy today. Unfortunately, we don’t see a reformer on the horizon willing and able to do the honors of breaking up these unnecessarily large organizations. However, there are a plethora of dreams, visions, and prophecies on the internet about the coming World War 3 and the invasion of America on both coasts.
Like John Lennon said: let’s give peace a chance.