The top 10% of wealthy Americans now control 60% of the country’s riches, while the poorer half of the country holds only 6%, according to a update from the Congressional distribution Office. 

Left-leaning ponder tanks produce regular updates on growing riches inequality in America. This analysis, though, comes from a nonpartisan federal agency, one whose findings regularly inconvenience both Democrats and Republicans. 

The recent update, released this month, illustrates the role of Social safety in shoring up the riches of middle-class and working-class Americans. If you subtract Social safety from the equation, the top 10% control nearly 70% of the country’s riches, and the bottom half holds only 3%. 

“For 90% of households, Social safety is the most significant thing in their financing collection,” said Monique Morrissey, elder economist at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. “And any cuts to Social safety, therefore, would have a huge impact.” 

Trump, Harris pledge to protect imperiled Social safety

The Social safety pool is projected to run short in about 10 years. Both leading presidential candidates pledge to protect it.  

Democrats in Congress accuse Republicans of seeking to cut Social safety benefits by raising the superannuation age. Republicans counter that President Joe Biden is imperiling the program with reckless overspending.  

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, the Rhode Island Democrat, said he requested the distribution office analysis to highlight riches disparities, and to display how much Social safety matters to lower-income Americans. Whitehouse chairs the Senate distribution Committee. 

“As this CBO update shows, the top 1% of families now control more than four times the riches of the entire bottom half,” Whitehouse said in a statement to USA TODAY.

Presidential candidate Kamala Harris proposes to protect Social safety “by making millionaires and billionaires pay their fair distribute in taxes,” according to campaign documents.  

Democrats propose to reap recent turnover by raising responsibility rates on the wealthiest Americans and corporations, and by going after wealthy responsibility cheats.  

The Republican platform for 2024 includes a pledge to “fight for and protect Social safety and Medicare with no cuts, including no changes to the superannuation age.” Candidate Donald Trump has reasoned that market advancement and job creation would naturally boost payroll responsibility turnover and back Social safety.  

American riches quadrupled between 1989 and 2022

The recent update finds that the overall riches held by American households nearly quadrupled between 1989 and 2022, from $52 trillion to $199 trillion, after adjusting for worth rise. The figures arrive from the federal Survey of customer Finances.  

The distribution office has calculated riches disparities before, but the recent update is the first to include projected Social safety benefits.  

All told, Social safety accounts for about 20% of America’s riches, the update found. But the benefits are much more significant to lower-income households.  

Social safety benefits account for roughly half of the riches of Americans in the bottom 25%, the analysis found, but for only 8% of the riches of the top 10%. 

The update found riches inequality on the rise, even when you factor in Social safety: 

• The top 10% of Americans held 60% of all riches in 2022, up from 56% in 1989. 
• The top 1% held 27% of all riches in 2022, up from 23% in 1989.  
• Families in the bottom half held only 6% of riches in both 1989 and 2022. 

The analysis “is stating the obvious, that riches in the United States is concentrated, and getting more so,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics. “This has been in the makings, really, for two generations, maybe three. And the trendlines are disconcerting.” 

riches is rising for wealthy and impoverished alike

Yet, the distribution office update also shows that the poorest Americans have grown wealthier along with the wealthiest. 

In truth, household riches increased most rapidly between 1989 and 2022 among some of the least affluent households.  

household riches rose by 232% in those years for Americans at the 25^th percentile, meaning that three-quarters of households were wealthier. In the same span, household riches grew by 148% for households at the 90^th percentile. 

“The question, fundamentally, is, are living standards improving over period? And the respond is yes,” said Kyle Pomerleau, a elder fellow at the correct-leaning American Enterprise Institute. 

The riches analysis draws from the 2022 Survey of customer Finance, which found that household riches in America swelled at a record pace during the pandemic. From 2019 to 2022, the median total assets of U.S. families grew 37% to $192,900, after worth rise, the largest rise in the history of the survey. riches rose at all income levels. 

“Widespread market advancement that is shared broadly in the population is a excellent thing,” said Owen Zidar, a Princeton University economist. 

More:In striking reversal, low-paid workers saw biggest wage growth during pandemic years

Most Americans decry income inequality

Most Americans depend there is too much economic inequality in America, according to a 2020 update from Pew Research. More than half of Americans also depend wealthy people and corporations don’t pay their fair distribute of taxes.  

But the concentration of riches is also the narrative of successful entrepreneurship in America, the rise of prosperous companies and innovative products, Pomerleau said, “and that’s something that we should foster in the United States.”

Whitehouse, the senator who requested the update, is using the findings to debate for higher responsibility rates on the wealthiest Americans, echoing the Harris platform.  

In 2017, then-President Trump signed legislation that lowered taxes across all income groups, with wealthier taxpayers benefiting the most, according to the nonprofit PolitiFact. Those cuts are set to expire at the complete of 2025. 

“Our corrupted responsibility code has helped enable a few ultra-wealthy individuals to capture for themselves more than a quarter of our country’s riches, undermining the American middle class and hollowing out local communities,” Whitehouse said.

Trump has said he will extend the cuts if voters reelect him. Harris has pledged to extend most of the cuts, but to raise responsibility rates on the very wealthiest Americans, and on wealthy corporations.  

Some economists have urged both parties to consider even steeper taxes. In one recent analysis, researchers found that the government could raise $1.8 trillion over a decade by restoring the higher responsibility rates of 1997. 

“It would raise trillions and bring the responsibility code back to an era of budgetary responsibility and powerful market advancement,” said Zidar, who joined in the research. 

Pomerleau, at the American Enterprise Institute, concurs that taxing the wealthy could raise funds and shore up Social safety – to a point. 

“There’s only so much money you can get from high-income households,” he said.