The annual Forbes 400 list of wealthiest Americans has landed amid heated rhetoric over 'class warfare.' Members saw their net worth ($1.53 trillion combined) rise 12 percent in the past year.
The annual Forbes list of wealthiest Americans has landed just in time to throw some extra fuel on a hot political debate over "the rich" and whether their taxes should go up.
The top 400 on this "rich list," led by Microsoft founder Bill Gates and investor Warren Buffett, saw their net worth rise 12 percent in the past year (the 12 months ended on Aug. 26).
All 400 had net worth of at least $1.05 billion, and their combined wealth reached $1.53 trillion, Forbes magazine reported as it released the list Wednesday.
For comparison, Americans overall have also seen their net worth rise, on average, but with a percentage gain somewhere in the single digits, judging by data tracked by the Federal Reserve.
Skip to next paragraphThe "rich get richer" trend won't necessarily come as a surprise, but it does come as the nation is focusing on a gauntlet thrown down earlier this week by President Obama, as he outlined a proposal for reducing federal deficits.
"I will veto any bill that changes ... Medicare but does not raise serious revenues by asking the wealthiest Americans or biggest corporations to pay their fair share," Mr. Obama said.
His plan calls for raising an extra $1.5 trillion in tax revenue during the next decade from households earning more than $250,000 in income. Obama mentioned Mr. Buffett as a supporter of such a tax hike. Much of the Nebraska billionaire's income is taxable at the low rate levied on long-term capital gains, leading Obama to say that "Warren Buffett?s secretary shouldn?t pay a higher tax rate than Warren Buffett."
Obama's support for such a tax change is not new, nor is the response of Republican opponents. They have blasted Obama and other Democrats for engaging in "class warfare" that seeks to pit the majority of voters against their richest fellow citizens.
House Speaker John Boehner called Obama's deficit-reduction proposal "a $1.5 trillion tax hike on American job creators," and said it amounted to a "campaign document" rather than a sound fiscal plan.
Both parties appear moving increasingly into campaign mode as the 2012 elections come into closer view. Political analysts say Obama is sounding more passionate, and more willing to fight against the firm no-tax-hike line that Republicans have laid down in the deficit debate.
A bipartisan "supercommittee" of a dozen lawmakers in Congress has until late November to come up with a plan to reduce future deficits, either through spending cuts alone or with some increased tax revenues added in.
The 12 percent gain in net worth for those on the Forbes 400 list may sound surprising, given all the recent weakness in the stock market. But thanks to gains late last year, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose by nearly that much during the 12-month period tracked by the magazine.
How have average Americans fared during that time?
The answers depend on the circumstances of individuals and families, but Federal Reserve data show overall American wealth to have risen by about $4.4 trillion between the second quarter of 2010 and the second quarter of this year. That's about an 8 percent gain, fueled largely by changes in financial assets. (Home prices have fallen during that time, as has household debt.)
The Fed data do not allow an exact comparison with the time period in the Forbes report, but by looking at the performance of the stock and housing markets during the August-to-August period, it seems likely that overall American net worth rose by less than 8 percent.
But for millions of middle- or lower-income families, their home is a bigger part of their net worth than are financial assets. Meanwhile, ownership of such assets is concentrated in the hands of the wealthiest 20 percent of Americans. For these reasons, any gains in net worth for the typical US family were probably very modest. And according to recently released Census Bureau numbers, the number of Americans living in poverty rose in 2010.
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