Bernie Sanders' income inequality statistic is very misleading
"Is the economy rigged?" asks Sen. Bernie Sanders in a new presidential campaign ad. "Well, the 15 richest Americans acquired more wealth in two years than the bottom 100 million people combined."
Sanders isn't technically lying: As the Washington Post calculates, the 15 richest people in America collectively gained $170 billion between 2013 and 2015, and the poorest 138 million Americans (the bottom 43 percent) have a combined worth of just $134 billion. That's a big disparity.
But what Sanders doesn't mention is that net worth calculation includes debts. So, for example, a recent Harvard Law graduate with a $200,000 annual income plus $100,000 in student loans and a $600,000 mortgage debt is probably living a comfortable upper middle class life — with a negative net worth.
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In fact, the bottom 40 percent of Americans collectively have so much debt that Sanders himself is wealthier than all of them put together with his relatively modest net worth of $330,000.
