(4) Widening wealth gap

The US?is more?polarized?than any other Western?country?in?terms of wealth distribution. Its Gini coefficient has?increased to 0.48 in 2021, almost the?highest in 50 years. As revealed by reports?of?the?Institute for Policy Studies, a US?think tank, the combined wealth of US billionaires soared?19-fold between 1990 and 2021, while over this same period, US?median wealth?only increased 5.37%.?The?harsh reality in the US is the rich is becoming richer, and the poor poorer.

According to Fed's October 2021 statistics, the middle 60% of US households by income, defined as the "middle class", saw their combined assets drop to 26.6% of national wealth as of June this year, the lowest in three decades, while the first 1% had a 27% share, surpassing the "middle class".

A report by UC Berkeley economist Emmanuel Saez shows that in terms of average annual income, America's?top 10% rich earn over nine times as much as the bottom 90%; the?wealthiest?1% are about 40 times more?than the bottom 90%;?and the ultra-wealthy top 0.1% are 196 times of the bottom 90%.

The stimulus policy that the US has introduced?in response to COVID-19 has, while pushing up stock markets, further widened the gap between the rich and the poor. The wealth of US billionaires has grown US$1.763 trillion, or 59.8%, over the 16 months since the COVID outbreak in the US. The wealthiest 10% now own 89% of all US stocks, registering a new historic high.

The wealth polarization in the US?is inherent to its own political system and the interests of the capital that its government represents. From the "Occupy Wall Street"?movement, to the recent "Harambe stares down Wall Street's Charging Bull", the American people have never stopped condemning the?widening?wealth gap. Yet, nothing has changed. Those governing the US choose to do nothing about the growing wealth inequality. And the pandemic has further exposed a rule in American society —?capital first and the rich first.