Michael Bloomberg, (proper) founding father of Bloomberg LP, and Lloyd Blankfein, chairman and CEO of Goldman Sachs Group, on the 10,000 Small Companies (1OKSB) Partnership Occasion in London on Dec. 14, 2016.
Chris Ratcliffe | Bloomberg | Getty Photographs
Combined emotions about excessive wealth
On the similar time, most Individuals have a love-hate relationship with excessive wealth.
“There’s a mounting disconnect,” the Harris report discovered: Six in 10 adults need to develop into a billionaire someday. In the meantime, 40% stated they despise billionaires. Many additionally stated that billionaires have the duty to raised society however aren’t doing sufficient.
As the rich get richer, 66% of adults see wealth inequality as a severe nationwide difficulty, and practically half of Individuals, or 47%, consider that there ought to be a restrict to wealth accumulation, the report additionally discovered.
A cell billboard in Washington, D.C., calling for larger taxes on the ultra-wealthy depicts a picture of billionaire Jeff Bezos on Might 17, 2021.
Drew Angerer | Getty Photographs
Of these polled, 24% stated private wealth ought to be capped at lower than $1 billion, whereas 20% stated it ought to be capped someplace between $1 billion and $10 billion.
There are roughly 200 folks within the U.S. who’re at the moment price greater than $10 billion, in accordance with Forbes’ annual rating of the richest folks. Among the many high 5, Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffett, Invoice Gates and Elon Musk are all price greater than $100 billion.
In the meantime, extreme wealth inequality was exacerbated by the Covid pandemic, different experiences additionally present.
The richest Individuals have continued to learn from proudly owning equities and actual property, notably final yr when each the inventory market and residential values soared. As of the top of 2021, the top 1% owned a document 32.3% of the nation’s wealth.
On the flipside, the share of wealth held by the underside 90% of Individuals fell since earlier than the pandemic, to 30.2% from 30.5%.
Within the Harris ballot, 58% of Individuals have been resentful of wealth accumulation over this era, when others suffered from the monetary fallout introduced on by the sudden financial downturn.
Taxing the ultra-rich good points help
“Proper now, the typical billionaire — there are about 790 of them or so in America — has a federal tax fee of 8%,” Biden tweeted.
The Billionaire Minimal Revenue Tax would assess a 20% minimal tax fee on U.S. households price greater than $100 million. Over half the income might come from these price greater than $1 billion.
However regardless of rising public help for higher taxes on the ultra-wealthy, billionaire tax proposals have failed to gain traction.
