Seventh is United States
Did we mention that the wealthiest nations are also the smallest? Of course, this is not the situation for the United States, which, despite a challenging 2020, managed to jump into the top ten after hovering on the borderline for the better part of two decades.
But, did the epidemic make Americans wealthier? It varies depending on who you ask. Certainly not those who lost their jobs and companies and were left with massive medical bills and other expenditures to pay, who waited in line at food banks.
Those in the top quintile of the population, earning more than $60,000 per year, were able to work from home in many situations, see their stock assets rise in value, and receive stimulus checks on top of that.
Another story concerns how the ultra-wealthy fared amid the health-care crisis. According to the Institute for Policy Studies, the combined wealth of America’s 719 billionaires increased by $1.62 trillion, or 55%, from $2.95 trillion to $4.56 trillion between March 2020 and April 2021.
They now have about four times the wealth of the roughly 165 million Americans in the poorest half of society. According to the research tank, the relationship was inverted in 1990, when billionaires owned $240 billion and the bottom half owned $380 billion.
In other words, if your salary is a fraction of the average GDP per capita in the United States, it is reasonable to assume that someone else is eating your lunch.