It’s never been a bad time to be a billionaire in America, but the .01 percent are having a particularly good year.
If you’re part of that vaunted club, your tax bill this year will likely be smaller than usual thanks to Republicans in Congress passing a massive tax cut targeted to disproportionately benefit the rich. And even as Democrats seem poised to win the House in Tuesday’s midterms, Donald Trump’s presence in the oval office means billionaires are safe from serious taxation or scrutiny of any kind for the foreseeable future.
In fact, according to a report released last month by Swiss bank UBS, 2017 was the best year worldwide for billionaires ever, with their total wealth increasing by $1.4 trillion to nearly $9 trillion total. (Among other things, the report attributed the spike to China “minting 2 billionaires a week.”) Another report released last week by the Institute for Policy Studies went further, showing how just three mega-rich families in the US—the Waltons of Walmart fame, the Kochs (the conservative mega-donors and energy mavens), and the Mars family (candy moguls)—have enjoyed a nearly 6,000 percent increase in wealth since 1982. According to that same report, three people—Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, and Warren Buffett—owned as much wealth as the bottom half of Americans combined.
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