U.S. billionaires almost a third richer today than when COVID-19 hit: Oxfam America

NEW YORK, April 17 (Xinhua) -- As the deadline for Americans to file federal income tax returns fast approaches, Oxfam America has renewed calls for taxing the ultrarich while publishing an analysis showing America's growing number of billionaires saw their wealth increase by nearly one-third since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and by nearly 90 percent over the past decade.

"Wealth inequality in the U.S. is more extreme and dangerous than income inequality; and we need to change our approach, so we effectively tax wealth as well as income," Common Dreams quoted the charity as saying in an introduction to the report, "Tax Wealth, Tackle Inequality," which was released last week.

Based on Forbes data, the report found that "U.S. billionaires are almost a third richer (over a trillion dollars, in real terms) than they were at the onset of the pandemic in 2020," while overall U.S. billionaire wealth has soared 86 percent since 2013.

The number of U.S. billionaires, of which there are now more than 700, is also nearly 60 percent higher than it was a decade ago, according to the analysis.

At the same time, the United States has a "permanent underclass" of working families who are denied their economic rights, trapped in poverty, and unable to accumulate wealth no matter how hard they work. Oxfam data shows that almost a third of the U.S. labor force earns less than 15 U.S. dollars an hour; half of all working women of color earn less than 15.14 dollars, said the report.

"The racial wealth gap is actually growing wider since the 1980s, and today is close to what it was in 1950. The average Black American household currently has only about 12 cents in wealth for every dollar of the average white American household," it added.