In mid-late May 2020, 600 Yankee billionaires increased their fortunes by $434 billion during the general crisis of imperialism accompanied by the Covid-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, almost 40 million workers have lost their jobs and the unemployment rate is expected to exceed 16% of the labor force.
Also at the end of May, the USA had just reached 100 thousand deaths due to the coronavirus health crisis, and the number of infected people reached 1.7 million people.
The net worth of these billionaires who profited during this chaotic scenario (among which are the five richest billionaires Jeff Bezos, from Amazon; Bill Gates from Microsoft; Mark Zuckerberg, from Facebook; Warren Buffett and Larry Ellison) increased by 15% compared to March 15, reaching a total of $ 3.3 trillion, according to the report by the Institute for Policy Studies.
Combined, Bezos and Zuckerberg’s fortunes grew by almost $ 60 billion in just 60 days ($ 1 billion a day).
The inequality relationship is not a mere accidental injustice but a direct result of the capitalist exploitation carried out against the proletariat and all workers. Especially in times of the deepening general crisis of imperialism, the great financial monopolies, which are more powerful, seize smaller economic groups and become even richer, while the mass of workers, brutally thrown into unemployment, are forced to compete with each other for jobs, pushing the price of the workforce (wages) down, spreading misery, hunger and chaos. For this reason, too, the crises, by making the ills of imperialism and its injustices even clearer, launch popular masses into struggles and increase the threat of revolutions.
