Wealth, Income, Poverty, Homelessness, and Hunger: Biden’s Record
Image by Morgan Housel.
“…he [Biden] has been the most effective president in the modern history of our country…” Senator Bernie Sanders
“We know that most people say that they think the economy has performed poorly under the Biden-Harris administration. However, we also know that by standard economic measures the administration has been an incredible success story.” Dean Baker
When Joe Biden was running for president in 2020, he held a fundraiser attended by some of our wealthier friends. According to a reporter for Vox,
Biden repeated his earlier remarks that he didn’t want to “demonize” the wealthy and added that, though “income inequality” is a problem that must be addressed, under his presidency, “no one’s standard of living will change, nothing will fundamentally change.” He went on: “I need you very badly. I hope if I win this nomination, I won’t let you down.”
The Federal Reserve Board (the Fed) recently released its 2024 second quarter figures on the distribution of household wealth in the United States. Unlike monthly reports on unemployment and inflation, or how the stock market is doing, the wealth figures produced by the Fed are often not reported on by the mainstream media.
The Fed figures show good news for the wealthiest .1%. They have not been “let…down.” Their share of the nation’s wealth continues to remain above 13%, a level first achieved in the last full quarter of the Trump regime during the pandemic in 2020. In the most recent period, the second quarter of 2024, the share of the nation’s total wealth held by the wealthiest .1% came to 13.5%. In money terms, the value of the holdings of the wealthiest .1% amounts to $20.87 trillion, up over 29.7%, by $4.78 trillion, since the end of 2020, right before Biden was sworn in.
At the end of the second quarter in 2024, according to the Fed, the poorest 50% of the population was holding 2.5% of the nation’s wealth totaling $3.82 trillion, almost a trillion less than the increase in the wealth of the .1% since the end of 2020.
At the end of the second quarter in 2024, the average wealth of a person in the poorest 50%, with many having negative wealth–owing more than all their assets are worth–came to a bit over $23,000 while the average holdings of a member of the .1% was $63 million, more than 2,700 times as much.
How have our ten wealthiest comrades, who are at the top of the wealthiest .1%, done during Biden’s presidency?
Below is a table based on figures taken from the Bloomberg Billionaires Index showing the size of the wealth of the wealthiest ten as of September 28, 2024. They have done even better than the rest of their brethren who are among the wealthiest .1%. Since the beginning of 2021, right before Biden was sworn in as president, their holdings have increased $676 billion, 64.6%.
According to the Bloomberg index, the increase in the wealth of these 10 people so far in 2024 comes to $349.4 billion.
Kamala Harris has put forth a proposal to provide each family with a newborn a $6,000 tax credit. In 2023, there were an estimated 3.6 million newborns. Had the credit been in effect in 2023, its cost would have come to $21.6 billion. This is less than the growth in the wealth so far in 2024 of 8 of the wealthiest 10: Musk ($43.3 billion), Bezos ($33.9 billion), Zuckerberg ($73.4 billion), Ellison ($58.6 billion), Gates ($22.5 billion), Page ($22.1 billion), Buffet ($24.5 billion), and Dell ($33.6 billion).
Income
According to government figures (pg. 34), the average income of all households in each of the lowest three quintiles (each representing 20% of the population) have experienced an increase in income since 2021. Additionally, the share of household income gained during the year by the 20% with the lowest average income increased from 2.9% of the country’s total income in 2021 to 3.1% in 2023. During this time, the share of the household income of the top 5% dropped from 23.5% to 23%. Nevertheless, the difference in income between those in the lowest income quintile and those in the top 5% has changed little, remaining over half a million dollars.
More importantly, as of 2023, none of those in the five quintiles, including those in the top 5%, have average household incomes in 2023 dollars adjusted for inflation exceeding the levels of 2019. For example, the average income of those in the lowest 20% stood at $17,650 in 2023, up compared to the previous two years of Biden’s presidency. However, in 2019, it was $520 higher at $18,070.
Widening Gap in Pay of Women and Men who Work Full-Time
The government figures (pg. 1) on income of full-time female workers show that the ratio of their median income to that of full-time male workers fell from 84% in the previous year to 82.7% in 2023. This is described as “the first statistically significant annual decrease in female-to-male earnings ratio since 2003.”
Poverty
In contrast to the significant gains of the super wealthy and despite a low official rate of unemployment, government reports continue to show ongoing economic problems for many people.
During the first three years of Biden’s presidency, the government’s official rate of poverty dropped from 11.6% in 2021 to 11.5% in 2022, and to 11.1% in 2023. Despite the drop in 2023, 36.79 million people were living in poverty, 11 million of whom were under age 18.
Homelessness and Food Insecurity Increase
According to The US Department of Housing and Urban Development report (pgs. 2, 10), the “2023 Point-in-Time (PIT) count is the highest number of people reported as experiencing homelessness on a single night since reporting began in 2007,” reaching 653,104 in 2023 compared to 582,462 in 2022.
A U.S. Department of Agriculture report (pgs. 11 and iii) indicated that the number of food insecure people increased from 33.8 million in 2021 to 44.2 million in 2022, and to 47.4 million in 2023.
“Children were food insecure at times during 2023 in 8.9 percent of U.S. households with children (3.2 million households), statistically similar to the 8.8 percent (3.3 million households) in 2022, but up from both 6.2 percent (2.3 million households) in 2021 and 7.6 percent (2.9 million households) in 2020. These households with food insecurity among children were unable at times to provide adequate, nutritious food for their children.”
We are frequently told the economy has done well during Biden’s presidency. Would many people, especially the poorer members of our society, the homeless, and people experiencing food insecurity agree that Biden has been “the most effective president in the modern history of our country,” and that during his time in office, the economy has been “an incredible success story?”
Postscript: The Record under Trump
Much of what has happened during Biden’s presidency represents the past actions of the government including Trump’s tax cuts and, more importantly, the operations of capitalism.
What happened in the areas discussed during Biden’s presidency, as he finishes up his last year, could be characterized as unimpressive. Despite Trump’s claim to have made America great again, the record during his presidency, for some, might not viewed as exhibiting greatness!
According to the Fed, the share of the country’s total wealth held by the wealthiest .1% reached 13% at the end of 2020, one half of a percent more than it was in all of 2017. During this time, the nominal wealth of the .1% increased most quarters growing from $11.49 trillion in the first quarter of 2017 to $16.09 trillion as of the end of 2020. This $4.6 trillion increase alone is more than one and a half times the wealth held by the poorest 50% of the population at the end of 2020.
In 2020, Bloomberg Billionaires Index indicated that the ten wealthiest U.S. citizens were the same people as in 2023 except a Walton instead of Dell was the tenth wealthiest. Despite the misery experienced by many during the first year of the pandemic, the wealth of the wealthiest ten in 2020 increased $346 billion reaching $1,068.5 billion.
During each year of the Trump regime through 2019, the average household income in inflation adjusted 2023 dollars increased. At the end of 2020, the first year of the pandemic, it remained higher than it was in 2017, but lower than in 2019.
Despite declining 1.8% in 2020 from the amount in 2019, the increase in average income of those in the top 5% had gone from $467,100 in 2016 to $523,600 in 2020, up 12% in 2023 inflation adjusted dollars.
The difference in the income of those in the top 5% with those in the bottom 80% widened during Trump’s presidency. For example, in 2023 dollars, the difference in the income of the top 5% of households compared to those in the fourth quintile (those households in the 60th to the 80th percentile of income distribution) grew from $348,600 in 2016 to $394,600 in 2020, and for those in the second quintile (those in the 20th to 40th percentile), the difference with the top 5% widened from $424,130 in 2016 to $477,110 in 2020.
In 2019, the rate of poverty was 10.5%, the lowest level from 1970 on. It had been 12.7% in 2016. Nevertheless, with that “achievement,” the number of impoverished people in 2019 was almost 34 million. During 2020, the first year of Covid, the percentage shot up to 11.5% with the number of impoverished people reaching 37.5 million, 11.79 million of whom were children under 18 years old.
The number of people experiencing low food security declined during Trump’s first three years from 41.2 million to 35.2 million in 2019. With the onset of the pandemic, it went up to 38.3 million in 2020.
The government count of the number of homeless people went up each year during Trump’s time in office from 549,928 in 2016 to 567,715 in 2019, and to 580,466 in 2020.
Given the above record, are people being unfair to question Trump’s claim that greatness was achieved, once again, during his presidency!!!?
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