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by Barrin92 127 days ago
Total household wealth in the US is about ~170 trillion dollars. Those 12 own about 1% of all US wealth. Not shabby for a dozen people but the main issue of American society isn't the handful of people who hit the news but mostly the top 19% below them. Richard Reeves wrote a good book on the topic: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dream_Hoarders

It's the upper middle class that fills educational institutions, prevents the construction of new property, hogs most of the old property and in general has impacted the upward mobility of the lower classes. Musk has a lot of issues, but he's not really getting in the way of people getting richer themselves.

2 comments

Upper middle absolutely causes a lot of problems; surprised more people aren't focused on them
It’s easier for the top 10% to blame the top 0.1% and absolve themselves, in spite of the knowledge that this changes nothing. Americans especially are averse to the idea that the middle class owes anything to anyone.
IOW alot of the parents of the young people who are complaining quite a bit themselves.
Sorry, on HN I wasn't expecting any attention from somebody who is fully convinced that no young people have parents, or something like that.
All US billionaires make up like 8 trillion