#wealth-inequality

#wealth-inequality

Additionally, since 2022, 12 states have implemented requirements for high schools to teach financial literacy, with some also incorporating the fundamentals of free-market capitalism. Nearly a dozen high school teachers told Business Insider that they've noticed their students are increasingly engaged in lessons on capitalism - and are skeptical toward the model. That's largely because they're more aware of economic conditions, such as the persistent wealth gap.

For many Americans, 2025 wasn't a great year financially. The affordability crisis and general economic concerns became defining themes of the year as people dealt with rising costs and a worsening job market. But for billionaires, 2025 was a boon to their already exuberant wealth. The 15 richest billionaires in the United States saw their wealth grow by more than $1 trillion over 2025, according to a new analysis from the Institute for Policy Studies, a Washington, D.C., think tank

Sobering new research from the think tank Resolution Foundation shows that for aspirational Brits looking to move up the wealth ladder, not even a lifetime of savings would be enough. In fact, the average worker would need to save their earnings for 52 years, to raise £1.3 million ($1.7 million), the amount needed to move from the middle and become as wealthy as the richest 10%.

Credit scores are lower than they've ever been, particularly with Gen Z," Goodarzi told Editorial Director Andrew Nusca at Fortune Brainstorm AI last week. Credit balances across the board are also the highest they've been, Goodarzi added, but Gen Z are disproportionately hurting in this category, too. "[Gen Z] credit card balances are up 36-37%," Goodarzi added. But there's one silver lining: "They still have jobs," Goodarzi said. "And that's what's really keeping things together."

As a New York court weighed whether evidence was gathered illegally during Mangione's arrest on charges of fatally shooting a top healthcare executive on the streets of New York, America got a taste of the trial's potent mix of politics, social comment, conspiracy theory and Hollywood-style murder drama. Last week's lengthy proceedings yielded little new information in the way of rewriting Americans' collective understanding of Mangione's alleged role in killing United HealthCare executive Brian Thompson with a purported ghost gun.

In late October, Hurricane Melissa (that should have been called "Godzilla") battered western Jamaica with 185-mile-an-hour winds. It tossed the roofs of buildings about like splintering javelins, demolished municipal buildings and hospitals, snapped telephone poles like matchsticks, flattened crops, and dumped torrential floodwaters everywhere, leaving $8 billion in damage. That Category 5 storm's unprecedented ferocity was driven by an overheated Caribbean Sea, produced by 275 years of industrial civilization that has spewed obscene amounts of heat-trapping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere annually.

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

"Why are we not giving incentives to companies to require them to give shares in their companies to all employees, at the same percentage of cash earnings as the CEO?" Cuban said. It is the right question to be asking. Because while the debate over wealth inequality continues, the solution has been hiding in plain sight for decades. The top 10% of U.S. households now control 67% of all wealth, while the bottom half holds just 2.5%.

Social class permeates all aspects of life, and love is no exception. In Spain, for instance, couples don't form randomly; rather, they're typically determined by socioeconomic factors. This means that people tend to partner with those most similar to themselves in terms of income and wealth. And, at the top of the social ladder, this tendency intensifies. Those who earn and have the most assets find each other with a frequency three times greater than would occur in a society where relationships were completely random.

Jenner's birthday bash Saturday was billed as one of the A-list social events of the year, attended by the likes of Kim Kardashian, Kylie Jenner, Oprah Winfrey, Gayle King, Tyler Perry and Adele, outlets such as People and even the Daily Mail, which tends to be hyper-critical of the self-exiled royal couple, glossed over the fact that the party's hosts were Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez.

The committee's report, commissioned as part of South Africa's G20 presidency, found that the richest 1% of the global population captured 41% of new wealth since the year 2000. By contrast, the bottom 50% of humanity have increased their wealth by just 1%, the report said, using data from the World Inequality Lab. In other words, the top 1% increased their average wealth by 2,655 times as much as the bottom 50%, the report said.

From gold-rimmed plates on gold-patterned tablecloths decorated with gold candlestick holders, they gorged on heirloom tomato panzanella salad, beef wellington and a dessert of roasted Anjou pears, cinnamon crumble and butterscotch ice-cream. On 15 October, Donald Trump welcomed nearly 130 deep-pocketed donors, allies and representatives of major companies for a dinner at the White House to reward them for their pledged contributions to a vast new ballroom now expected to cost $300m.

Chicago's mayor, Brandon Johnson, told the crowd the Trump administration had "decided that they want a rematch of the civil war", which the white supremacist Confederacy lost to the Union in the 19th century. "We are here to stand firm and stand committed that we will not bend, we will not bow, we will not cower, we will not submit," Johnson said. "We do not want troops in our city."

It would take the average earner in the UK 52 years' worth of earnings to become as wealthy as the richest 10%, according to new research by the Resolution Foundation. In a new report, the influential thinktank analyses the Office for National Statistics' latest wealth and assets survey, which covers the Covid pandemic period of 2020-22. . The authors find that in 2006-08, before the global financial crisis, it would have taken 38 years' worth of median full-time earnings

In remarks to Catholic newspaper Crux in July, which were published over the weekend, the Pope reflected on the "continuously wider gap between the income levels of the working class and the money that the wealthiest receive." "Yesterday [there was] the news that Elon Musk is going to be the first trillionaire in the world," he told the newspaper. "What does that mean, and what's that about?"

Dalio described a future where humanoid robots, smarter than humans, and advanced AI systems, powered by trillions of dollars in investment, could render many current professions obsolete. He questioned the need for lawyers, accountants, and medical professionals if highly intelligent robots with PhD-level knowledge become commonplace, stating, "we will not need a lot of those jobs." This technological leap, while promising "great advances," also carries the potential for "great conflicts."

Bribery is generally unethical and often illegal, but also quite effective. When my four-year-old is acting up and ignoring my increasingly desperate pleas for her to get dressed, leave the playground or do something else very important, I have, on occasion, resorted to desperate promises of ice-cream. Obviously, I know it's counterproductive to respond to suboptimal behaviour with sugar-based bribes. But sometimes you are exhausted and just need a short-term win. The ice-cream always delivers.

Daniel Currell's guest essay in The New York Times shows how Walt Disney World Resort has evolved from an accessible "all-American vacation" to a luxury experience targeting high-net-worth households. Wealthy visitors can pay for premium passes that let them bypass lines; one tech executive quoted in the article experienced 16 attractions in seven hours. Meanwhile, Scarlett Cressel, a bus driver who could not afford to pay for special ride reservations and other perks, managed nine attractions over 14 hours.