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The top 0.1% of taxpayers—about 170,000 families in the US,, 330 million people—control 20% of American wealth, the highest share since 1929. The top 1% control 39% of U.S. wealth, and the bottom 90% have only 26%. The bottom half of Americans combined have a negative net worth. 
The world’s rich were stowing at least $7.6 trillion in offshore accounts, accounting for 8% of global household financial wealth; 80% of those assets were hidden from governments, resulting in about $200 billion in lost tax revenue per year. bloomberg.com/news/features/…
Something cataclysmic happened around 1980. As Ronald Reagan took the White House, the top 0.1% controlled 7% of the US’s wealth. By 2014, the top 0.1% had tripled its share, to 22%, a bit more wealth than the bottom 85% of the country controlled.
Ray Dalio, founder of Bridgewater Associates, the world’s largest hedge fund, called the widening U.S. economic divide a “national emergency” that, left unaddressed, will lead to “some form of revolution.”
When Reagan cut the top marginal tax rate from 70% to 28%, and later, when Presidents Clinton & Bush slashed tax rates for investors, they were doing so on the advice of economists. The prevailing belief was that lower taxes on the wealthy would stimulate more investment & growth
The effect of lower taxes on the rich isn’t to stimulate the econ but to further enrich the rich & incentivize greed. When wealthy get tax breaks, they focus less on reinvesting in businesses & more on hiring lobbyists. "What they spend their time on is defending that position.”
The most important factor determining your economic prospects was the class into which you were born; from Italy to India, the poor stayed poor and the rich stayed rich. By the mid-20th century, though, the most crucial factor was the country of your birth.
