Income Gap Expands As Top 400 Get Wealthier

By Cornelius Nunev


According to Forbes latest list of the 400 wealthiest Americans, the wealth of the super-rich has increased in the last year. Meanwhile, as the rich get richer, the middle class continues to reduce in size, widening yet more the gap between the rich and the poor.

Richer prosperous

The magazines released its annual report on September 19. It found that the net worth of the country's 400 wealthiest citizens grew by $1.7 trillion during the last year. That is an increase of 13 percent. Combined, the net worth of the elite 400 is the equivalent of 12.5 percent of the country's economy, according to NBC News.

There has also been an increase in the average net worth of each of the 400. It has increased to $4.2 billion per person.

Forbes found that 261 of the richest 400 all saw their income go up. The increases in wealth were attributed to stock growth and a rebounding real estate market.

Same people as always

The list contained familiar and anticipated names. The rankings of the top five stayed the same from 2011, although their net worth had risen: Bill Gates, Buffett, Larry Ellison, Charles and David Koch (tied for fourth) and Christie Walton.

Gates, chairman of Microsoft, has headed the list for the last 19 years. He saw his worth grow by $7 billion to $66 billion. Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway, saw his worth rise by $7 billion. Larry Ellison, head of Oracle Corp, got the largest raise, however, with a rise of $8 billion.

Exemption seen

A notable exception to the trend of increasing net worth was social network mogul Zuckerberg, who lost almost half of his net worth after his cash cow Facebook went public. This year, he is scraping by on $9.4 billion.

Much bigger gap

In a separate study last week, the Economic Policy Institute discovered that the gap between the wealthiest Americans and the average family has more than doubled in the last half-century. According to the report, the nation's top one percent of earners made about 125 times that of a middle-income household in 1961. In 2010, it had escalated to a ratio of 288 to one.

The income of most Americans has dropped in recent decades, according to the study. However, as we have seen, the worth of the rich elite continues to climb.

While the trend has been active for decades, the Economic Policy Institute report noted that the gap has widened at a more rapid pace since the Great Recession.




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