The top one percent of richest Americans now hold more wealth than the entire American middle class, data from the Federal Reserve reveal.
The data, published in Bloomberg, show that the middle class — defined as 60 percent of United States households in the middle of all income brackets — has seen its share of national wealth plummet to just 26.6 percent.
This represents the smallest share of wealth held by the middle class since the Federal Reserve started tracking the data. The middle class includes 77.5 million U.S. households with an annual income of $27,000 to $141,000.
Meanwhile, the top one percent of U.S. income earners saw their share of national wealth grow to 27 percent, surpassing the middle class for the first time ever. The richest Americans include about 1.3 million U.S. households who earn more than half a million dollars annually.
Since 1991, the data show, the top 20 percent of U.S. income earners have seen their share of national wealth grow by about 10 percentage points. At the same time, the middle class has seen its share of real estate, private businesses, and corporate equities all declined in the past three decades.
(Screenshot via Bloomberg)
The data is the latest to show the nation’s millionaire and billionaire class has profited from advantages in the economy that are not equally afforded to working and middle class Americans.
Last year through the midst of the Chinese coronavirus crisis, for example, billionaires in the U.S. increased their wealth by 40 percent as joblessness hit millions and economic lockdowns shuttered thousands of small and medium-sized businesses.
Similarly, an October 2019 report by top economists showed that the wealthiest 400 Americans in 2018 paid a lower tax rate than all other income groups in the U.S. — the first time on record. The analysis concluded that the top economic elite are paying lower federal, state, and local tax rates than working and middle class Americans.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.
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