640 billionaires have seen their wealth increase over $931 billion since mid-March.

 

Since the start of the pandemic, millions of Americans have lost their health and wealth. Many have lost their livelihoods and even lives. The bottom 80 percent of U.S. households are watching their savings and home equity implode. Meanwhile, America’s over 640 billionaires have seen their wealth increase over $931 billion since mid-March. We entered this pandemic as a deeply unequal nation. The pandemic is only deepening that staggering inequality — and revealing how dysfunctional as a society we’ve become. We’re now planning a campaign to turn this new public awareness into political power for change — and we need your help.  To help build this campaign, we’ve set a goal of getting 100 new monthly donors. Can you sign up to make a small, automated monthly gift today? We’re regularly updating our Billionaire Bonanza 2020 report — to show how billionaire wealth has surged during the pandemic. Our research has already inspired Senator Bernie Sanders and other lawmakers to introduce the “Make the Billionaires Pay Act,” an emergency tax on the burgeoning personal fortunes of America’s billionaires. We're also getting a lot of coverage, including an article in the New York Daily News last week, showing readers reacting to another article about our findings: "Working New Yorkers outraged by billionaire boom during pandemic." Help us amplify these findings — and seed a growing campaign about the trillions that billionaires are hiding in dynasty trusts, offshore tax havens, and shell companies.   Taking on these billionaires won’t be easy. We’ll need your help. To help build this campaign, we’ve set a goal of getting 100 new monthly donors. Can you sign up to make a small, automated monthly gift today? Many of us were shocked to learn that President Trump only paid $750 in federal income tax in 2017, but he’s not the only billionaire skirting the tax laws and sliding through loopholes. An entire “wealth defense industry” is now serving up tax-avoidance schemes for the 643 individual American billionaires that we’re tracking. We need your help to continue our research and advocacy for a better system that uncovers the hidden wealth of American billionaires and demands that they pay their fair share. Can you commit to a monthly donation to support our work? This work won’t be easy, but it will make a difference. We’ve already seen the culture and the conversation change as Americans across the country feel the effects of dramatic economic inequality. Now it’s time to turn ideas into action. Thank you for your ongoing support. Chuck Collins, for the Institute for Policy Studies Inequality​.org team