这三个人的财富相当于1.6亿美国人财富总和

美国政策研究所的一项分析显示，约1.60亿美国人的财富加起来才抵得上比尔·盖茨、杰夫·贝佐斯和沃伦·巴菲特。

该智囊机构在名为《亿万富翁财源》（Billionaire Bonanza）的报告中指出，美国贫富差距不断拉大是一场“道德危机”。它还警告说，特朗普政府提出的税务政策只会让贫富变得更加悬殊，因为1%的最富有家庭得到了80%的税收优惠。

报告作者之一、经济学家查克·柯林斯认为，鉴于贫富差距扩大，“现在应该采取行动缩小这种差距，而不是给极富裕阶层减税”。

报告称：“100年前的第一个镀金时代以来，还没有出现过财富和权力如此集中的情况。”

在《福布斯》富豪榜上，位列榜首的是微软创始人比尔·盖茨，拥有890亿美元资产；亚马逊的贝佐斯名列第二，资产数额为815亿美元；股神沃伦·巴菲特以780亿美元的资产规模排在第三位。富豪榜公布以来，贝佐斯的财富一直在增长，这在很大程度上要归功于亚马逊股价的上涨。现在贝佐斯的个人财富已经接近1000亿美元，在明年的《福布斯》富豪榜上将跃居首位。

尤其要说的是贝佐斯的财富积累证实了报告的一个核心观点：极富有人士积累财富的速度正在加快，这让跻身极富有阶层变得越来越难。

近年来，美国工薪阶层的收入基本停滞不前，而1978年以来首席执行官的薪酬却增长了930%以上。现在CEO的工资是普通员工的271倍。

而要进入今年的《福布斯》富豪榜，这400名最富有美国人的财富得增长18%。现在的富豪榜门槛为20亿美元，是1982年《福布斯》首次发布富豪榜时的10倍。

同时，五分之一的美国家庭的财富为零或负值。少数族裔尤其如此——近三分之一的黑人家庭和超过四分之一的拉丁裔家庭处于这样的状态，而白人中此类家庭占14%。

报告指出：“这种令人咂舌的贫富差距威胁着我们的民主，使种族和阶层分化问题变得复杂起来，削弱了社会凝聚力并让经济变得不稳定。”

富豪榜上排在前25位的都是白人。在所有的400人中，只有两名非裔美国人（脱口秀主持人奥普拉·温弗瑞和科技投资人罗伯特·史密斯）以及五位拉丁裔人士。（财富中文网）

译者：Charlie

审校：夏林

It takes the combined wealth of about 160 million Americans to equal that of Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, and Warren Buffett, according to analysis from the Institute for Policy Studies.

In its Billionaire Bonanza report, the think tank called the growing wealth inequality in the U.S. a “moral crisis” and warned that the tax policy proposed by the Trump administration would only worsen the disparity, with 80% of tax benefits going to the wealthiest 1% of households.

Citing the rise in wealth inequality, economist and co-author of the report Chuck Collins said, “Now is the time for actions that reduce inequality, not tax cuts for the very wealthy.”

“We have not witnessed such extreme levels of concentrated wealth and power since the first gilded age a century ago,” the report says.

The Forbes list cites Gates, the Microsoft founder, as the richest person in America with $89 billion, Amazon’s Bezos as second richest with $81.5 billion, and investor Warren Buffett at third-richest with $78 billion. Since the list was published, Bezos’s wealth has increased — thanks in large part to the rising value of Amazon’s stock — putting him at nearly $100 billion and in a position to appear at the top of the Forbes list next year.

Bezos, in particular, demonstrates a key point of the report: The super rich are accumulating wealth faster, making it harder and harder to break into the club.

Wages for workers in the U.S. have remained relatively stagnant in recent years, while chief executive officers’ compensation has grown more than 930% since 1978. CEOs now make 271 times what the typical worker earns.

This year the Forbes magazine list of the 400 richest people in the U.S. saw an 18% increase in the amount of wealth needed to make the cut. The price of admission is now $2 billion — ten times the amount of money it took to make the first Forbes 400 list in 1982.

Meanwhile, one in five U.S. households have zero or negative wealth. This is especially true of minority households — nearly a third of black households and more than a quarter of all Latinx households have zero or negative wealth, compared to 14% of white families.

“Such staggering levels of wealth inequality threaten our democracy, compound racial and class divisions, undermine social cohesion, and destabilize our economy,” the report says.

The top 25 richest billionaires are all white. There are only two African Americans (Oprah Winfrey and tech investor Robert Smith) and five Latinx members among the 400-person list.