[lock-the-spock]

I also see very innocuous reasons for selecting those dates: for instance if you want to show what happened "since COVID hit us" this is indeed the fully correct choice.

But irrespective of the dates chosen, even your carefully selected counter-data shows a 30% increase in wealth for the richest in about 2 1/2 years. Even those of us dabbling in stocks must find this increase mind-boggling, also as it continues a seemingly indefinite trend. The rich are getting richer, whether it's by 30% or 100% in 2 years it is damaging to our societies and means millions more continue to suffer as resources are used for private enrichment at a level that does not even bring these rich anything beyond vanity value.

[DonsDiscountGas]

> if you want to show what happened "since COVID hit us" this is indeed the fully correct choice.

It's not though. The stock market dropped 30% from Feb-March 2020, and then recovered it's Feb value by Aug 2020. The Feb-Aug "increase" is really a recovery.

One could certainly write about how the rich were not impacted nearly as much by the pandemic (and recovered faster) and many people have, but that's not the focus of this report.

[koheripbal]

> Even those of us dabbling in stocks must find this increase mind-boggling

No, those of us invested in tech stocks have also seen large double digit returns this year alone.

[mlrtime]

"it is damaging to our societies"

Why though? Assuming the poorest in the world are getting better (Which they are) how is this damaging? Nobody clearly states this and the few studies I've found are easily rebutted.