The dysfunctional society: US billionaires on the rise—roads, bridges in decay

by wsws (reposted)

Tue, Mar 22, 2005 7:14AM

Two recent reports cast light on the impact of growing social inequality in the US. The first, the annual inventory of the very rich compiled this month by the business magazine Forbes, tracks the wealth of the world’s billionaires, and their increasing numbers in the US. The second is the “report card” issued by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) on the state of the infrastructure in the United States.

Together these studies provide a devastating exposure of the price being paid—in the form of basic necessities of daily life—for the ongoing process of diverting ever-greater sums of the national wealth into the personal investments portfolios and bank accounts of the super-rich in America.

Forbes reports that the world’s billionaires counted 691 among their number in 2005, an increase of over 100 in just a year’s time. The aggregate wealth of this handful of men and women reached $2.2 trillion, an increase of $300 billion in just one year. On average, the net worth of each is nearly $3.2 billion.

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http://wsws.org/articles/2005/mar2005/forb-m22.shtml

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