Dr. Cornel West on economics: what the evidence says · JRE #1325
SUBJECT: ECONOMICS
Not a true/false call. Every claim is logged with its sources; read the exhibits below.
But the same is true within, let's say, black communities. You've got, okay, 1% of the population in America who own 41% of the wealth.
What the evidence says 01 / RECORD
West stated that the top 1% of the U.S. population owns 41% of the nation's wealth. Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) data for 2019, the year closest to this episode's airing, put the top 1%'s share of total household wealth at 38% under the standard "Bulletin" concept (marketable net worth) and at 33% under the broader "augmented" concept that also counts defined-benefit pension wealth. No Federal Reserve wealth-concentration measure from that era reaches 41%. The claim therefore overstates the actual concentration, though only moderately under the highest applicable Fed estimate (38% vs. 41%) and more substantially under the broader measure (33%). The broader point that U.S. wealth is highly concentrated at the top, and that a large racial wealth gap exists (median White family wealth was about eight times median Black family wealth in 2019, per the Fed), is well-supported, even though the specific 41% figure is not.