Story 2: Final Draft – Live fast die young

Pandemic Increased Wealth Inequality Even Further.

The wealth of 467 billionaires increased by $731 billion only during the time of the pandemic.

According to the Guardian Newspaper, London, “The top 0,0001% are using a global pandemic as an opportunity to make outrageous profits after receiving a de facto bailout by the federal reserve.” President Trump’s tax cut to the wealthy, makes billionaires now pay a lower effective tax rate than teachers, nurses or firefighters.

Their purchasing and investment power in addition to government resources help them make enormous profits from and during economic catastrophes like Covid-19. Nevertheless, billionaires are very important during economic catastrophes because they create millions of jobs and benefit the economy through their companies. The public opinion on billionaires is usually more negative because the majority thinks that no one deserves to have that much money. Even billionaire Mark Zuckerberg’s quote mentioned in the New York Times said that” on some level no one deserves to have that much money.”

They have everything but how does it come that billionaires still increase their wealth further? According to the New York Times, “studies over the years have indicated that the rich, unlike the leisured gentry of old, tend to work longer hours and spend less time socializing.” Of course, that still doesn’t justify the enormous amount of money, but it shows that there is a lot of hard work and effort behind it. Others increase their wealth by using more unethical methods.

Jeff Bezos, who is currently the wealthiest person alive, made approximately $13 billion in one day, while his companies denied paid sick leave and a safe workplace to thousands of his workers. Another example is the Walton family which generated around $21 billion during the last weeks. The largest private employer in the U.S. still makes their employees work for starvation wages at Walmart.

The Business Insider even used a study from 2012 which shows, “that as much as $32 trillion was being held offshore by the world’s wealthiest people.”

Tax laws and loopholes keep billionaires at the top, while 92 million Americans are uninsured, tens of millions are facing evictions and according the too Business Insider, “more than 40 million Americans unemployed. Tobias Sadler who is a business management major at Morningside said that “it is scary to see how fast people can lose their job and that the job market seems to get worse and worse.”

The Business Insider also said that “in 2019, four out of ten Americans didn’t have enough cash in their bank to cover over a $400 unexpected expense.” Kai Schwägerl said, “that it seems very unfair that some people increase their wealth by so much while the majority of the U.S. works extremely hard to barely linger their basic needs.” The student from Germany who studies accounting at Morningside also thinks that “the government has to increase their efforts to stop the increasing wealth inequality between the really rich and the working class.”

The numbers above show how big the wealth inequality actually is and that study was even before the pandemic happened.

Congress needs to stand up for the Americans that are not in the top 0,0001% and change national priorities. A good start would be to use the enormous amount of money and wealth gain made through the pandemic by the billionaires. Using that money would guarantee healthcare for the duration of the pandemic.

According to Americans for tax fairness from the Guardian,” imposing a 60% tax on the wealth gains made by just 467 billionaires would raise over $440 billion.” Jackson Presha who is a history major at Morningside said that “imposing a 60% tax on the wealth makes sense and should definitely be established but there should also be a possibility for billionaires who donate a certain amount money to charity events and good cause to avoid the 60% tax.”

With the money made through the tax, healthcare could be extended to everyone in America, regardless of their coverage. It also means that no one would have to pay medical bills out of their pocket for the next 12 months.

Bernd Haberkorn who is a former German sociology professor said that “freeing people from paying medical bills during times of corona would have several positive effects. The strongest advantage would be, that the level of pressure on families with financial issues decreases significantly. That will lead to an increase of their overall mental health and their well-being.”

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