Sunday, April 13, 2014

The rich and the mega rich

SOYMB will keep on revealing the wealth of the capitalists.

The richest of the rich are amassing wealth at an astonishing rate and increasingly hiding it in offshore bank accounts, far more than previously known. New York Times columnist Paul Krugman summed up the numbers Friday, arguing that they tell us "something important about how the world really works ...At the commanding heights of the US economy, hiding a lot of one’s wealth offshore is probably the norm, not the exception," Krugman wrote.

As much as six per cent of all world wealth is hidden in tax shelters, according to a new study.

The 1% earned an average of $1.2million in 2012, the most recent year data is available for. The 0.1% earned almost $6.4million but the top 0.01% earned over $30million.

The 1% incomes have remained mainly flat. The 0.1% have seen earnings double what they were 20 years ago, and many multiples higher than in the 1970s but the super rich 0.01 per cent have seen incomes sky rocket by 1,300 per cent since the early 1990s.

The 0.01 percent has essentially quadrupled its share of the country's wealth in half a century. They don’t work for their money. Their money ‘works’ for them. The 400 richest tax returns analyzed by the IRS take home about 50 percent of their income from capital gains. Capital gains are income earned through investments.





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