US Billionaires’ Wealth Grew By $1,300,000,000,000 During Pandemic Year

We live in an unfair world where the rich continue to get richer and the poor continues to get poorer. While the pandemic crisis took the world by surprise the unprecedented challenge brought misery for the poor people or the middle-class people while this misery came with the news of profit for the rich people of the world.

A new report has revealed that US billionaires have seen their wealth grow by an astonishing $1,300,000,000,000 over the course of the coronavirus pandemic.

This report from the Institute for Policy Studies, published Tuesday, March 23, tracked the net worth of the richest people in America from March 18, 2020, right up to March 18, 2021.

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It was discovered that Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Amazon head Jeff Bezos, and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg were among those whose fortunes soared more significantly over the course of the year. On the other hand, an additional 43 people became billionaires.

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As per the report, which drew from Forbes data, found that Musk topped the list, with his wealth increasing by 559%. This has left him $137.5 billion richer.

Bezos’s wealth increased by 57.6%, rising from an approximate net worth of $113 billion on March 18, 2020 to $178.1 billion by March 18, 2021. Meanwhile, Zuckerberg saw his fortune rise by $47 billion, or 86%.

Chuck Collins, director of the Institute for Policy Studies’ Program on Inequality, said:

The pandemic profiteers are extracting windfalls of wealth during a time of widespread suffering for the majority of people.

They exploit the artificial markets created by the pandemic, including having their Main Street competition shuttered and our increased dependence on online technologies.

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These wealth differences stand in stark contrast to an average American who continues to struggle for basic necessities of life during the pandemic year and to pay thousands of dollars in tax on top of that. 

In a press release, Frank Clemente, executive director of Americans for Tax Fairness, said:

The pandemic has created an astonishing rise in wealth for the nation’s billionaires while tens of millions of Americans fell further behind.

Billionaires are living in a different world from the rest of us. It’s time we bring them down to earth and make them pay their fair share of taxes like the rest of us so we can create an economy that works for everyone.

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According to the website Inequality.org, more than 76 million people in America lost their jobs between March 21, 2020, and January 23, 2021, with 18 million collecting unemployment on January 30, 2021.

From January 20 to February 1, approximately 24 million adults reported their household had not had enough food over the course of the past week, while nearly one-in-five renters reported being behind on their rent in January.

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Additionally, Jeff Bezos's wealth skyrocketed while Amazon continued to face widespread scrutiny for trying to crush unionization efforts at its Alabama warehouse, where workers are pushing for better pay and working conditions.

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