Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has renewed his criticism of extreme wealth concentration, arguing that the fortunes of three tech billionaires now eclipsing the bottom half of American households reflect a fundamentally broken economic system.
Tech Billionaires' Fortunes Surpass Bottom 50% Of US Households
On Wednesday, Sanders shared a graphic on X comparing the combined wealth of Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk, Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) founder Jeff Bezos and Meta Platforms, Inc. (NASDAQ:META) CEO Mark Zuckerberg with that of the bottom 50% of U.S. households.
The chart, citing Forbes and Realtime Inequality data, shows that the bottom half of Americans holds about $85.4 billion in total wealth, far less than the estimated $478.6 billion for Musk, $245.9 billion for Bezos, and $221.1 billion for Zuckerberg.
Sanders Calls Wealth Gap Evidence Of A ‘Rigged Economy‘
"While millions of families struggle to put food on the table Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos & Mark Zuckerberg own more wealth than the bottom HALF of Americans," Sanders wrote.
"That's what oligarchy is about. That's what a rigged economy is about." He added, "Is it any wonder that people in this country are angry?"
The chart visually highlights the gap, with each billionaire's wealth surpassing the collective holdings of roughly 165 million Americans.
Billionaires Gain, Millions Face Poverty Amid Economic Strains
Last month, America's wealth divide widened as the 10 richest billionaires added $698 billion in a year, while the bottom half of households held just 1% of the stock market value.
Over 40% of Americans faced poverty or low income, with racial and gender wealth gaps persisting.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent offered a more cautious outlook, blaming the Federal Reserve's policies for recessionary pressures in parts of the economy.
He said the Trump administration had cut spending and improved the deficit-to-GDP ratio, arguing that inflation should ease and the Fed should consider lowering interest rates.
Bessent added that high mortgage costs created "distributional" issues and that reducing rates could end the housing recession.
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Photo Courtesy: Sheila Fitzgerald on Shutterstock.com
Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
