Top billionaires, such as Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg, earned US$698 billion in 1 year

As Americans tighten budgets amid food assistance program cuts, rising housing costs and mass layoffs, the ultrarich experience unprecedented wealth gains. In the coming years, we may even have our first trillionaire: Elon Musk.

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Now, a new report from Oxfam has revealed that the 10 richest US billionaires added US$698 billion (R$3.8 trillion) to their wealth in the last year.

Almost all of this ultra-wealthy group are leaders of companies that profited from the technology and AI gold rush — including Oracle Corporation co-founder Larry Ellison, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, and Dell Technologies founder Michael Dell.

On average, each person on the top 10 richest list in the US earned $69.8 billion last year — that’s 833,631 times more than the typical American family earned. The average annual income of a family in the US was US$83,730 (R$452,000) last year, according to US census data.

40% of American families are “poor”, says Oxfam

While billionaires get richer, Americans survive on modest salaries. More than 40% of the U.S. population — including nearly 50% of children — are considered poor or low-income, according to the report.

Observing trends over recent decades, the concentration of wealth becomes even more evident. Between 1989 and 2022, a wealthy US family in the 99th percentile (or top 1%) has accumulated 101 times more wealth than the average family.

In fact, the richest 0.1% of Americans today own 12.6% of the assets and 24% of the stock market. Meanwhile, the poorest 50% hold just 1.1% of the stock market.

Women and people of color were most affected by growing inequality; the average male-headed family gained four times more wealth compared to the typical female-headed family.

White family resources grew 7.2 times more than the typical black family, and 6.7 times more than the typical Hispanic/Latino family.

And although they represent a third of the US population, black and Hispanic/Latino families hold just 5.8% of the country’s wealth.

To make matters worse, the wealth gap in the US is only about to widen, the report warns, thanks to the Trump administration, job shortages, the “One Big Beautiful Bill” and a looming recession.

Why inequality in the US is getting worse

History seems to be repeating itself; the richest 0.0001% control a greater share of wealth than in the Gilded Age, according to the report. Billionaires have become kings in the US, and the new administration is passing laws to safeguard their fortunes.

“The Trump administration risks exponentially accelerating some of the worst trends of the last 45 years”, notes the Oxfam study, “in less than a year it has already implemented a huge regressive tax reform, major cuts to the social safety net and significant setbacks to workers’ rights.”

President Trump approved his “One Big Beautiful Bill” in July, which involves reducing the tax bill for the top 0.1% of earners in the country. By 2027, the rule is expected to cut taxes on the ultra-rich by $311,000, while the poorest Americans — earning less than $15,000 a year — will be forced to pay even more in taxes.

Among the 10 largest economies in the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development), the USA ranks second to last in using the tax and transfer system to combat inequality. Among this group, the United States also has the highest relative poverty rate.

While the US is home to more billionaires than any other country in the world, the average American citizen doesn’t get a slice of this monumental economic success. Moody’s Corporation Chief Economist Mark Zandi told Fortune magazine last month that lower-income families are “on a financial tightrope.”

The cost of living is skyrocketing, good-paying job opportunities are scarce, and layoffs are on the rise. To make matters worse, the US is heading towards a recession; 22 American states are already seeing their economies contract, putting their finances at risk.

“The feeling of instability is greater because no one is being hired. You can sustain this for a while, but not forever. If layoffs start to increase, this lower-middle income group will be hit — and they have no options,” said Zandi.

“They have debt: car debt, student loan debt. Maybe, if they’re lucky, they also have a mortgage. They’re going to get in trouble, and their world is going to go into recession very quickly.”