US sees stark wealth gap widening

Editor's note: As the wealthy in the United States take lavish vacations, spend on luxury goods and dine out as usual, the poorest battle the fallout of inflation squeezing their abilities to afford the basics. China Daily takes a closer look at the widening wealth gap in the country.

The growing gap between the "haves and have-nots" in the United States is widening as the middle class and the uber-wealthy take lavish vacations, spend on luxury goods and dine out as usual, while the poorest battle the fallout of inflation squeezing their ability to afford the basics such as food and rent.

The majority of the millionaires and billionaires in the country are located in New York City, which has the largest number of both sets of rich people, with 350,000 millionaires and 60 billionaires, according to the USA Wealth Report from Henley and Partners and New World Wealth.

But nestled nearby to their most popular enclaves such as the exclusive apartment buildings on the Upper East and West sides, the endless row of luxury shops on Fifth Avenue and the towering real estate of "Billionaire's Row" on 57th Street, is real, searing poverty, say activists.

More than 1.2 million adults and children don't have enough to eat each day, according to food bank City Harvest and other groups that help feed the poor.

City Relief in New York City serves free food from mobile vans in several areas to low-income workers, migrants and the homeless. "Many rely on these meals as their only meal of the day," Corey Hayes, creative director for City Relief, told China Daily.

In the US of two halves, the wealthiest, including 1 percent, don't rely on just their jobs, but have investments, own real estate and lucrative businesses. The average Wall Street bonus for 2023 was $176,500, down from $180,000 in 2022, according to the New York State comptroller.

At least 31 properties in New York City worth $4 million and above went into contract between June 10 and 16, according to Olshan Luxury's Market report.

Since 2020, the combined wealth of the US' 737 billionaires has grown by 88 percent to $5.529 trillion, according to the Institute for Policy Studies calculations based on Forbes data.

In 2022, the Federal Reserve found that the richest 1 percent own 54 percent of all stock and mutual funds in public equity markets, a jump from the 40 percent they owned in 2002.

Wealth inequality is higher in the US than in any other developed nation and has steadily risen over the past 60 years and worsened amid the COVID-19 pandemic. It mainly affects people along the lines of gender, education and race.

Richard Alba is a US sociologist, a distinguished professor emeritus at City University of New York and at the sociology department at the University of Albany SUNY. His 2020 book was The Great Demographic Illusion: Majority, Minority, and the Expanding American Mainstream.

Alba told China Daily that the US has seen itself for a very long time as "divided by race" and around the 1970s that meant division "between whites and blacks".

But he adds: "I think we're headed toward greater openness, but not necessarily to the most fundamental racial problem of the United States, which is the position of African Americans".

Most white families had six times the average wealth of black families and five times that of Hispanic families, research from the Urban Institute, a nonpartisan think tank, found.

In 2022, a white family's average wealth was $1.36 million, compared to Hispanic families at $227,544 and black families at $211,596, according to data from the Federal Reserve's Survey of Consumer Finances.

In a twist of fate, the same data explored the wealth of Asian families for the first time and found that their average wealth was $1.8 million — 1.3 times the average wealth of white families.

When it comes to travel among the ultrawealthy, the US is the leading country for private jet flights. There are 15,000 private jets in the US. One in every six flights handled last year by air traffic controllers for the Federal Aviation Administration was a private jet.

There were 5,298,445 private jet flight hours recorded in North America, the second highest since before the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019, data from Argus TraqPak showed.