The founder of the left-leaning People’s Policy Project said on Hill.TV’s “Rising” on Monday that inequality in the U.S. is a problem across racial and other demographic lines.
In an interview with co-hosts Saagar Enjeti and Krystal Ball, Matt Bruenig broke down how each individual group of Americans has seen wealth concentrated among the richest few, while the vast majority own very little by comparison.
“When you look at each one of those groups, you see the exact same inequality. So, you know, the top ten percent of elderly people own 75 percent of the wealth [of all Americans in that demographic]. The top ten percent of white people own 75 percent of the white wealth [in America],” he said. “It’s really the same story, over and over again, in every group.”
Bruenig said inequality between racial groups is far more pronounced among the wealthy than among lower-income Americans.
“When we talk about racial gaps, or we talk about educational gaps, we’re really talking about the gaps between the top people in each of those groups,” he said. “One eye-popping stat you can use…the gap between [Amazon CEO] Jeff Bezos and the wealthiest black billionaire…it’s something like $150 billion dollars.”
“That amount? That’s pretty much the gap between the bottom half of [all] white people and the bottom half of [all] black people combined,” Bruenig said.
Watch Bruenig’s interview in part above:
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