Free Republic

Republicans are trying to lock in Trump’s tax cuts and Democrats are resisting. We now know that DOGE is trying to end the wasteful spending in DC. But I would really like to see tax rates on the middle class fall. The wealth gap between the top 1% of taxpayers and the bottom 50% of taxpayers is enormous. And has gotten worse since 1990. Meanwhile. to fight off the temporary effects of the tariff war, Trump is urging Fed Chair Powell to cut rates. Powell will likely NOT cut rates. But what does “Lunatic Liz” Warren say about rate cuts??

The average American’s net worth across all states is nearly $595,000. However, wealth levels vary among states alongside cost of living and other factors. As Visual Capitalist's Alejandra Dander notes, according to anonymized data from nearly 2 million Empower Personal Dashboard™ users, we highlight the top ten states with the highest average net worth per person.A closer look at average net worthNet worth is calculated by taking what a person owns (their assets) and subtracting what they owe (their debts). Here are the leading states by net worth as of September 2024.Connecticut has the highest net worth of nearly $920,000,...

Washington state is grappling with a multi-billion dollar budget deficit, prompting some Democrats to propose a wealth tax as a potential solution. However, there is still no consensus on the exact size of the deficit or a clear analysis of how the state arrived at this point. Washington is facing a severe budget crisis, with the state’s deficit reaching billions of dollars after years of unchecked spending. Some Democrats are suggesting that a wealth tax could be the answer to this financial problem. However, there is still no agreement on the precise amount of the deficit, nor is there a...

As of 2025, Chelsea Clinton’s net worth is $70 million. She is the daughter of former President Bill Clinton and Hillary. Chelsea Inherited the majority of her wealth through a trust fund, which includes couple of expensive properties in Maui and millions in stock holdings. Chelsea Clinton receives an annually-recurring funding from USAID, allocated by Obama for her Foundation, which provides afternoon meals to children in Africa, India, and Bangladesh. However, as of today, the reported number of meals served stands at 11,886, implying an astonishing cost of $1,410 per meal.(snip) After the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, USAID allocated more...

The top three states based on the median-sized worker paycheck are: Washington, DC: $100,800 Massachusetts: $75,700 Alaska: $70,000 DC residents also earn twice as much as the median earner in 13 states. New Mexico’s workers can’t be too happy. DC workers now make nearly two and a half times as much as the average New Mexico resident. And for what? Washington, D.C. produces almost nothing. There are no farms, no factories, no distribution centers, no manufacturing. The swamp does produce lawyers, lobbyists, regulations, rules, politicians, politicians’ minions, special interest groups, journalists, and bureaucrats. You’ve heard us say it many times:...

At one of the confirmation hearings in the Senate, for President Trump's nominee Robert F. Kennedy to be Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kennedy asked an interesting question, slightly paraphrased below: How is it that the wealthiest nation on the earth, the United States of America, is not the healthiest nation on earth? How is it we have increasing levels of Obesity, Depression, Diabeties, etc? The question assumes the wealthier a nation is, the healthier it should be. This is not necessarily true. Many of the problems noted by RFK Jr. are diseases caused by abundance. Wealth is the...

Unfair. Astonishing. Un-American. That is how tech entrepreneur Jeff Atwood sees the staggering wealth inequality in the U.S. today. In response, he and his family have pledged to give away half their wealth within five years, starting with $1 million gifts to eight nonprofits this month. His warning about the dangers of growing inequity was echoed by outgoing President Joe Biden in his final primetime speech Wednesday. “Today, an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms, and a fair shot for everyone to get...

In ancient Egypt pharaohs were considered gods. They believed that when a pharaoh died, he would continue to lead them from the beyond, which partially explains why they had such ornate tombs. At roughly the same time, Japanese emperors were similarly thought to be gods, a practice that continued until 1945, when, after the war the emperor was required to explain to his people that he, in fact, was not a god. In the Roman Empire, while emperors were not considered gods while living, most were deified upon death. While living however they were thought to have authority that had...

For the last couple of months, I’ve been noting various articles in which very rich people are taking some remarkable steps: Buffett’s vice chairman dumps over half of his Berkshire shares.. Warren Buffett offloads Bank of America shares worth $982 million in latest sale.. Buffett’s Berkshire offloads Bank of America shares again; total sales near $7 billion.. Berkshire quietly dumps half its Apple shares amid unprecedented selling spree.. Blackrock reveals it’s quietly preparing for a $35 trillion Federal Reserve crisis with Bitcoin.. Jeff Bezos sells another $863.5 million of Amazon stock.. Now, clearly wealthy people are always shifting around their...

A woman who inherited $250,000 from her late grandmother has revealed how she quit her job, blew through the money and now lives in a rental home. Sarah Faith Jacobson, a 40-year-old corporate consultant in Texas, said after she received the large amount of money she had no idea what to do with it, and 'regrets' how she spent it. Her grandparents were successful Bay Area real-estate investors in the 1970s, and after her grandmother died in 2020, Jacobson inherited $175,000 from her life insurance policy and another $75,000 from her will.

Based on data from a U.S. Treasury report, the federal government has amassed $142 trillion in debts, liabilities, and unfunded obligations. This staggering figure equals 93 percent of all the wealth Americans have accumulated since the nation’s founding, estimated by the Federal Reserve to be $152 trillion. Unlike other measures of federal red ink that cover an arbitrary period, extend into the infinite future, or ignore government resources, the figure of $142 trillion applies strictly to Americans who are alive right now and includes the government’s commercial assets. Thus, it quantifies the financial burden that today’s Americans are leaving to...

Home to an estimated 110 billionaires and even more multi-millionaires, Switzerland is in danger of losing a large part of its population. The ultra-rich are preparing to flee the country in fear of a new tax proposal. Yes to the tax The JUSO (The Socialist Youth), under the Social Democratic Party, are determined to impose a law for a 50 per cent inheritance tax on all residents whose assets exceed 50 million francs (€51 million). The Vice President of JUSO, Melanie Rufi stated to the Press that the rich should be held “responsible” for climate change, as they “contribute enormously...

The salary to be considered 'rich' has risen in every state in the last five years - as rampaging inflation means everyday spending eats up a bigger chunk of wages. In fact, new data has revealed how the earnings needed to be among the wealthiest has soared by over 40 percent in some states. The definition of rich has changed the most in Washington state, according to data from GOBankingRates, where Americans must now earn $544,518 to be among the wealthiest, up from $378,374. The personal finance site defined 'rich' as those within the top 5 percent of earners in...

The Federal Reserve has created America’s version of India’s caste system. At the top of the neo American caste system are bankers and the political donor class. The top 1%. The other 99% are losing ground to the Brahmin Banker Class. In 1913, Woodrow Wilson and his progressives promised that the Federal Reserve would avert both depressions and inflation, while preventing the wealthy from controlling America’s financial markets at the expense of the poor, the new untouchable class. More than a century later, it’s clear that was all a lie, and the Fed has helped create a permanent American underclass...

The combined net worth of the 10 richest people in finance reached $446.9 billion in 2024.Here, Visual Capitalist's Niccolo Conte ranks them based on Forbes data as of Feb. 1, 2024.The Oracle of Omaha93-year-old Warren Buffett heads the list. The chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway has a net worth of $128.7 billion.Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway portfolio is 62% invested in only three stocks: Apple (42.9%), Bank of America (10.2%) and American Express (9.1%).Based in Omaha, Nebraska, where he has spent much of his life and where Berkshire Hathaway is headquartered, Buffett is also the 6th richest person in the world.In...

Seems like a plethora of historical examples would be ample evidence, but the average leftist isn’t really the thinking type. The dirty little secret about the wealth distribution of the leftist ruling class is that they only redistribute the wealth—to themselves. Have you ever considered why leftist ruling-class leaders are extraordinarily rich while they also preach wealth redistribution? And why is it that leftists never bring this up? Look at the evidence down through history and around the world, and you will see the same pattern repeated with every leftist regime. Let’s begin with the now-defunct USSR, which was supposed...

A longtime investment banker named David Webb is exposing a global plot dubbed “The Great Taking” to steal stocks and other assets from Americans and people across the world, explains The New American magazine Senior Editor Alex Newman in this episode of Behind The Deep State. As part of the plan, laws were quietly changed to strip security owners of their property rights and instead give them a “security entitlement.” Now, those assets have been used as collateral by financial institutions as part of the massive derivatives complex. And when the system crashes, which Webb suspects will happen this...

According to mythology, Hades made King Sisyphus roll a huge boulder endlessly up a steep hill in Tartarus. Unfortunately, the modern day version of Sisyphus is the middle class pushing a boulder endlessly up a steep hill while the top 1% (the elite class) horde more and more wealth. An example of the Sisyphus economy? The top 1% of earners (blue line) have seen an incredible increase in net worth, particularly after Fed Chair Alan Greenspan’s big rate cuts (green line) from 2000 to 2004. Each subsequent rate cuts under Bernanke (2007-2008) and Yellen (who just kept rates too low...

In early February, Mark Zuckerberg added $28 billion to his wealth in a matter of hours as Meta’s shares soared after the company announced its first dividend payout.This follows a banner year for the Facebook founder, who saw his wealth surge 173% in 2023. Like Zuckerberg, many tech billionaires added huge sums to their wealth as the stock market rebounded.Visual Capitalist's Dorothy Neufeld shows in the following graphic from Preyash Shah, the biggest winners and losers in billionaire wealth in 2023...The Top Risers and FallersBelow, we rank the world’s top 50 billionaires by their net change in wealth:Adding $113.5 billion...

America's wealthiest families held an astounding $8.5 trillion in untaxed profits in 2022...This term, the Supreme Court will decide Moore v. United States...According to a report by The Lever, the Moores' case has been backed by billionaire think tanks and conservative dark money groups.