According to a new report by Americans for Tax Fairness and the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS), the nation’s 623 billionaires saw their net worth increase by $434 billion in the first two months of the pandemic thanks in large part to tax cuts and loopholes.
On the other end of the spectrum, hip hop’s first billionaire Shawn “Jay-Z” Carter, gained just 4.2% of wealth during that time, while Kanye West reached the billionaire benchmark in April.
“While millions risk their lives and livelihoods as first responders and front line workers, these billionaires benefit from an economy and tax system that is wired to funnel wealth to the top,” said Chuck Collins, director of the IPS Program on Inequality, in a press release.
Forbes reports:
That existing rift has increased over the last two months, as evidenced by the inverse relationship between employment numbers (particularly for low-income earners) and the composite wealth of America’s billionaire class.
“The pandemic has revealed the deadly consequences of America’s yawning wealth gap, and billionaires are the glaring symbol of that economic inequality,” Americans for Tax Fairness executive director Frank Clemente said in the report.
