Grrrrrr: As 45 million Americans lost their jobs, U.S. billionaires made $584 billion.

[kpete]

ABC News Daily: June 30, 2020

The novel coronavirus pandemic has only exacerbated income inequality, experts say, stretching the racial wealth gap in the United States and making the richest wealthier while leaving many of the poorest without jobs.

As the COVID-19 pandemic overtook the U.S., it brought with it an unprecedented financial crisis and unemployment rates at their highest levels since the Great Depression, especially among Black, Hispanic and Asian workers (16.8%, 17.6% and 15% in May compared to 12.4% for whites). At least 45 million people have filed for unemployment since the pandemic began.

Yet between March 18 and June 17, as the pandemic raged, the combined wealth of the 614 U.S. billionaires increased by $584 billion, according to an analysis released late last week by the Institute for Policy Studies, a progressive think tank based in Washington, D.C. The researchers calculated the billionaires' wealth gains based on real-time data from Forbes.

Experts said the wealth of the richest Americans is tied more closely than the rest of America to the stock market, which crashed at the onset of the crisis but has rallied since -- largely detached from the broader economic picture.


https://abcnews.go.com/Business/extreme-inequality-preexisting-condition-covid-19-widened-americas/story?id=71401975&cid=social_twitter_abcn

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[Tech]

1. And repubs want to take away the $600/week unemployment money.

[Calculating]

4. That should go anyway

It shouldn't pay more to stay home than to work. It's really demoralizing for people working right now to hear about other people staying home and making more than them.

[Newest Reality]

2. The rent is due...

The rent is due July 1st, so to speak. This is really going to get bad and it has no end in sight, especially with no more desperately needed stimulus for those who require it urgently.

Millions of people, including families with children and also seniors will be hitting the streets across America in the coming weeks as evictions increase.

That's bad for a list of reasons, for us and them. The first part, as I know from experience, will be the full-on confusion, fear and psychological shock they will fall prey to. It's downhill from there and the vulnerability of exposure may also make them easy pickings for exploitation and crime, too.

[Cicada]

3. Start the calculation Feb 1 and the gain disappears

Stocks crashed, costing billionaires hundreds of billions. The statistic in this claim starts at the bottom of the stock market and mainly describes billionaires recovering previous losses. Some industries have benefitted, such as mail order sales, but overall I doubt billionaires are better off.