Katharina Buchholz, writing for Stastista, has written about the distribution of wealth in the US over time, and the evidence confirms that wealth concentration continues in the US. Her analysis is depressing:
“10 percent of the richest people in the United States own almost 70 percent of the country’s total wealth. As of June 2019, the top 10 percent held 69.4 percent of total U.S. net worth (that is the value of all assets a person holds minus all their liabilities).
“The top 1 percent held about half of that wealth – 32.4 percent, while the next 9 percent held approximately another half at 37 percent. The bottom 50 percent of U.S. residents only held about 2 percent of all of U.S. wealth. As recently as 2011, that number was as low as 0.2 percent, caused by the downswing of the Great Recession.
“Looking the development of U.S. wealth distribution since 1989, the rich have in fact gotten richer, with the top 1 percent expanding their wealth share from 24 percent to 32 percent. The next 9 percent has remained steady at 37 percent while the 50-90 percentile has been holding less wealth, 29 percent in 2019 – down from 35 percent in 1989. The bottom 50 percent, after the recession setback, have only now recovered to pre-recession levels.”
The Syrian situation defies analysis. I don’t think I have ever seen such a massive screw-up, and I certainly can’t remember reading about such a miserable situation. It is hard to believe that someone could find humor in such a desperate situation, but the Onion comes through. It would be extraordinarily funny if it weren’t also true.
” AIN ISSA, SYRIA—As they streamed out of detention camps in northern Syria following U.S. withdrawal of military support in the region, jubilant ISIS prisoners on Monday hailed their American liberators. “We never thought we’d see the day when someone would finally stand up for us and free us from the Syrian Democratic Forces’ clutches,” said ISIS member Mohsin Al-Lateef as hundreds of his recently liberated fellow jihadist militants praised President Donald Trump and raised American flags in tribute to their emancipators. “For years, we opposed the United States for their intervention in our lands, but now we see that they strongly believe in our mission to establish a caliphate across our ancient lands and put infidels to death. We will honor the U.S. for not only standing down in support of our fight against the Syrian Kurds but for stoking chaos in the region to give us a chance to regroup and re-emerge stronger than ever before. God bless America!” At press time, President Trump had shared a video of the liberated ISIS prisoners celebrating and thanked them for their support. “
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