Top 10 America’s Billionaires Collective Wealth grew by $698 Billion, While the Rest of the Country's People Fell Further Behind

While millions of families struggle to pay rent, feed their children, and afford basic healthcare, America’s top ten billionaires have quietly grown $698 billion richer in just one year.

Mark Zuckerberg, Lauren Sanchez, Jeff Bezos, Sundar Pichai and Elon Musk at Trump’s inauguration ceremony on 20 January 2025. Photograph: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images

A new report by Oxfam America has delivered a sobering message about the state of wealth and inequality in the United States: while a small handful of billionaires have seen their fortunes balloon by $698 billion in just one year, nearly half of American families are struggling to get by.

The findings underscore what many Americans already feel in their bones — that the system is rigged to reward the wealthy few while leaving everyone else fighting over scraps.

The Billionaire Surge

According to Oxfam’s report, the top 10 U.S. billionaires — including household names like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Warren Buffett — collectively grew their wealth by nearly $700 billion between 2023 and 2024. It’s a staggering concentration of money in the hands of a few, in a country where tens of millions still live paycheck to paycheck.

Drawing on Federal Reserve data from 1989 to 2022, Oxfam’s researchers revealed that the top 1% of American households gained 101 times more wealth than the median household over that span. In raw numbers, that’s an $8.35 million gain per household for the top 1%, compared to just $83,000 for the average American family.

At the bottom, the divide is even more grotesque. The wealthiest 1% now hold 987 times more wealth than households in the bottom fifth of the income scale.

A Nation Falling Behind Its Peers

The Oxfam report also paints a grim picture of how the U.S. stacks up globally. Among the 39 high-income nations in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the United States now ranks:

• 1st in relative poverty,

• 2nd in child poverty and infant mortality, and

• 2nd-lowest in life expectancy.

More than 40% of Americans — including nearly half of all children — live in low-income families earning less than 200% of the federal poverty line.

“Inequality is a policy choice,” said Rebecca Riddell, senior policy lead for economic justice at Oxfam America. “These comparisons show us that we can make very different choices when it comes to poverty and inequality in our society.”

Trump’s Tax Windfall for the Rich

Oxfam places much of the recent acceleration of wealth inequality at the feet of Donald Trump’s economic policies, particularly his 2025 “one big, beautiful bill,” which it describes as “one of the single largest transfers of wealth upwards in decades.”

The legislation, passed by a Republican-controlled Congress, cut corporate taxes and slashed rates for the ultra-wealthy — fueling a stock market surge that disproportionately benefited billionaires.

But Oxfam is quick to point out that the problem isn’t partisan — it’s systemic.

“Policymakers have been choosing inequality,” Riddell said. “And those choices have had bipartisan support. For decades, both parties have backed policies that weaken labor rights, cut social safety nets, and reduce taxes for the wealthy.”

Decades of Dismantling the Middle Class

The report traces America’s growing inequality to the slow erosion of its core democratic and economic foundations. Tax loopholes for corporations, stagnant wages for workers, and the weakening of unions have tilted the scales decisively toward the rich.

What once was a nation built on opportunity now looks more like a pyramid — stable at the top, crumbling at the base.

The middle class, once the heartbeat of American democracy, is shrinking. The working poor — nurses, teachers, service workers — face rising costs for housing, healthcare, and education, while billionaires use their wealth to reshape the political system to their advantage.

The Politics of Poverty

The report argues that inequality persists not just because of bad policy, but because of how those policies have been sold to the public.

Decades of political rhetoric — from Ronald Reagan’s “welfare queen” myth to modern attacks on “handouts” and “big government” — have stigmatized the very programs designed to lift families out of poverty.

At the same time, the wealthy have convinced many Americans that taxation is an attack, rather than a tool for fairness and balance.

“What’s really needed is a different kind of politics,” said Riddell. “One that’s focused on delivering for ordinary people by rapidly reducing inequality. There are proven reforms that could go a long way toward reversing these troubling trends.”

A Blueprint for Change

Oxfam’s recommendations are ambitious but grounded in evidence. They call for:

• Rebalancing political power through campaign finance reform and stronger antitrust laws to curb corporate monopolies.

• Taxing extreme wealth and corporate profits to reinvest in public services like education, healthcare, and affordable housing.

• Strengthening social safety nets — from childcare to healthcare — to ensure that no one falls through the cracks.

• Protecting unions and workers’ rights, recognizing that organized labor remains one of the few counterweights to corporate power.

Hope in Grassroots Movements

Despite the grim statistics, Oxfam highlights a growing sense of solidarity at the grassroots level. Across the country, workers are organizing, communities are mobilizing, and ordinary Americans are demanding change.

Union organizers from United Workers Maryland, featured in the report, described the current moment as a turning point. “People are starting to see that the system isn’t working for them — only for the people at the very top,” they said.

Riddell agrees. “I love thinking about this moment as an opportunity,” she said. “An opportunity to realize our broader power and reimagine an economy that truly works for everyone.”

The American Crossroads

America stands at a crossroads — one path leading toward even greater concentration of wealth and power, the other toward shared prosperity and renewed democracy.

The question isn’t whether change is possible. The question is whether there’s enough political courage to make it happen.

As Riddell reminds us, “Inequality is a choice. And it’s time we start choosing differently.”

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