The Real Redistribution of Wealth

Romney, the right-wing, and Fox News have made a lame attempt to counter Romney’s “47%” fiasco with a sound bite from the President spoken 14 years ago wherein he dares to utter the word “redistribution” approvingly.  Of course this an example of Fox News’ usual false equivalency ploy.  But aside from that, if we want to discuss  “redistribution” we should turn to today’s  Forbes release of the list of the 400 richest Americans.  Consider the following from today’s San Francisco Chronicle:

“Generally speaking, it’s never been a better time to be filthy rich, as Forbes points out in its overview story.

The combined net worth of the 2012 class of the 400 richest Americans is $1.7 trillion, up from $1.5 trillion a year ago. The average net worth of a Forbes 400 member is a staggering $4.2 billion, up from $3.8 billion, and the highest ever, as two-thirds of the individuals added to their fortunes in the past year. Another factor: the gap between the very rich and the merely rich is widening.

Those poor “merely rich” souls. Meanwhile, the gap between the rich and poor has, of course, hit an all-time high.

“There was no relief for the average American,” the Los Angeles Times wrote earlier this month. “The median household income, after adjusting for inflation, dropped 1.5% in 2011 from the previous year to $50,054.”

To put that in perspective, you’d have to multiply the median household income by 1.3 million to get to Bill Gates’ net worth.

That figure is also 8.1 percent lower than in 2007, when the reckless gambling of the country's incredibly wealthy plunged the nation and huge parts of the world into the Great Recession.”

You can read the entire article here.