$64B Richer
One of the highlights to every presidential campaign is the push for a better economy. It is widely agreed that a good economy is better for us all than a bad one but sometimes it only takes a day or two to get better… for some.
One of the hallmarks of the economic growth in the United States over the past 40 years is how far the gap has grown between the wealthy and the rest of us. While most people were a couple days into processing Tuesday’s election, 10 people’s wallets were extremely happy with the outcome with CNN reporting that the 10 richest people in America saw their networth increase by $64 Billion following the election.
One interesting place to look is at Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index that tracks the wealth growth of Billionaires.
https://www.bloomberg.com/billionaires/
Yes, that is a real thing!
Most of the numbers are enormous and don’t translate to the regular world. Bloomberg reports that it was the biggest single day increase in wealth since they started tracking in 2012.
More than likely you have a reaction to that increase - especially in our polarized times. What I want to draw out of this article is something we must become more and more concerned with and that is the issue of wealth and poverty. Much of this shift over the past several decades is flying under the radar since most people do not believe they are “poor” or heading that way but that is most certainly the case. This is especially true for those that started their working years after 1990 and is cause for alarm and the basis of my book The Future Poor.
Perhaps the billionaires have earned it or that fortune has shown upon them. Perhaps they innovated in ways we could not have imagined and been the beneficiaries of a particular form of capitalism. What cannot happen is that more and more people are left behind in this economic race to the top. What marks a good economy is not that it is great for a select few, ok for some and not so great for many. Our success is not in how a few at the top do but how we do as a whole, from bottom to the top.
Many of the names on Bloomberg’s list have changed our lives and taken risks at a time when the economy rewarded them and we were ready to be changed. The warning in this is that despite that, the world moves and shifts and much of this is fleeting if we are not doing what is morally and ethically best for all. That time may be closer than we think.
For more about wealth and poverty over the decades I cannot recommend enough that you watch Robert Reich’s lectures that he taught at Cal Berkeley on “Wealth and Poverty.” They are freely available on YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1f2blKai7HA
Here is a link to the original article.
https://us.cnn.com/2024/11/07/investing/billionaires-net-worth-trump-win/index.html
As always, if you come across a financially related article you’d like to send my way please do!
Best place to send them is to me.
More next time!
Jonathan