US oligarchs prosper in times of suffering
Released
Friday to coincide with the second
anniversary of the World Health Organization's official
pandemic declaration for Covid-19, the latest billionaire fortune analysis by
Americans for Tax Fairness (ATF) finds that the 704 billionaires in the U.S.
now own more combined wealth than the 165 million people in the bottom half of
the country's wealth distribution.
"For
billionaires, it's been two years of raking in the riches, while for most
families it's been two years of fear, frustration, and financial worry,"
ATF executive director Frank Clemente said in a statement.
The new analysis stresses that billionaires' pandemic windfall "may never be taxed" because it consists of unrealized capital gains, which are not subject to taxation under current U.S. law. As one possible solution, ATF voices support for Sen. Ron Wyden's (D-Ore.) proposed Billionaires Income Tax, legislation that would impose an annual levy on ultra-wealthy Americans' unrealized gains from tradable assets such as stocks.
"The
rising asset values billionaires have enjoyed over the past two years are not
taxable unless the assets are sold," ATF explains. "But billionaires
don't need to sell assets to benefit from their increased value: they can live
off money borrowed at cheap rates secured against their rising fortunes. And
when all those wealth gains are passed along to the next generation, they entirely
disappear for tax purposes."
While
Democrats in Congress considered a tax on billionaires as part of their Build
Back Better package, that legislation was tanked by
a handful of corporate Democrats—including Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.)—and a
unified Republican caucus.
Earlier
this month, Manchin floated a
further watered-down version of the Build Back Better proposal that calls for
tax reforms targeting the wealthy and corporations, but it's unclear whether
the West Virginia Democrat would accept a tax on billionaires.
"Working
families pay what they owe in taxes each paycheck. Billionaires generally pay
little or nothing in taxes on these extraordinary gains in wealth,"
Clemente said Friday. "Congress should enact a Billionaires Income Tax to
directly tax these wealth gains as income each year, so that billionaires begin
to pay their fair share of taxes. Such a reform is not yet part of President
Biden's investment and tax legislation now being revised by Congress, but it
should be."
According
to ATF's new analysis, the biggest billionaire winners during the coronavirus
pandemic's first two years were:
- Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who saw his net worth skyrocket by $209 billion;
- Google co-founder Larry Page, whose fortune grew by $63 billion; and
- Google co-founder Sergey Brin, whose wealth increased by $60 billion.
"Not
one of the 15 richest U.S. billionaires gained less than $10 billion,"
ATF noted on
Twitter, pointing out that during the same two-year period 80 million Americans
were infected by Covid-19 and nearly a million were killed by the virus.
"We
can't accept an economy and tax code that allows billionaires to hoard
trillions while working families struggle to afford healthcare, childcare,
education, and housing," the group added. "It's wrong, and we can do
better."