Rich Getting Richer, Still—Forbes 400’s Wealth Rose 13% in 2012
The majority of Americans may still be suffering from declining wages, unemployment, speedups, downsizing, foreclosures and a drop in personal wealth, but the richest Americans had another banner year in 2012, with their net worth rising 13%. The richest 400 had an average net worth of $4.2 billion, according to Reuters. Together they had a cumulative net worth of $1.7 trillion. In stark contrast, the median net worth of the average American household dropped 40% between 2007 and 2010, according to the WSWS, while the net worth of those on the Forbes 400 list has grown 15-fold since 1982.
However, it was not all peaches and cream for the nation’s oligarchy. Poor Mark Zuckerberg saw his net worth cut in half, from $17 billion in 2011 to $9.4 billion in 2012, as a result of his