The following is a letter to the Editor by Scott Foreman. The views expressed are his own. The Ratonian does take a political stand on any issue.
In a report focusing on wealth inequality in the US published November 3 by Oxfam America, the research shows that the 10 wealthiest people in the country have seen their collective fortune grow by nearly $700 billion since Donald Trump began a second term in the White House, mainly in the form of tax cuts.
- The wealth surge experienced by billionaires is part of a decades-long, policy-driven trend of upward redistribution that has enriched the very few and devastated the working class, according to the report, entitled Unequal: The Rise of a New American Oligarchy and the Agenda We Need.
- Between 1989 and 2022, according to the report, the least rich US households in the top 1 percent gained 987 times more wealth than the richest household in the bottom 20 percent. As of last year, more than 40 percent of the US population was considered to be poor or low-income, according to the report. In 2025, the share of total US assets owned by the wealthiest 0.1 percent reached its highest level on record: 12.6 percent.
- The Trump administration and Republicans in Congress have added rocket fuel to the nation’s out-of-control inequality while carrying out a relentless attack on working-class families, the report states.
- “The new American oligarchy is here,” said Abby Maxman, president and CEO of Oxfam America. “Billionaires and mega-corporations are booming while working families struggle to afford housing, Healthcare, and groceries.”
- “Now the Trump administration and Republicans risk turbocharging that inequality…But what they’re doing isn’t new. It’s doubling down on decades of regressive policy choices. What’s different is how much undemocratic power they’ve now amassed, ” Maxman said.
- Given the severity of US inequality and the ongoing Trump-GOP efforts to exacerbate it, Oxfam stressed that a bold agenda “that focuses on rebalancing power” will be necessary to reverse the course.
- That agenda would include a wealth tax on multimillionaires and billionaires, a higher corporate tax rate, a permanently expanded child tax credit, a firm antitrust policy that breaks up corporate monopolies, a federal job guarantee, universal childcare, and a substantially higher minimum wage.
