Truthout
Inequality
![Elon Musk gestures as he speaks during his visit at the Vivatech technology startups and innovation fair at the Porte de Versailles exhibition center in Paris, on June 16, 2023.](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2023/07/2023_0706-elon-musk-400x300.jpg)
World’s Richest Added Average of $14M Per Day to Their Wealth Over Past 6 Months
The 500 richest people on the planet collectively added $852 billion to their fortunes in the first half of 2023.
![People walk past an office building labeled "BLACKROCK"](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2023/06/2023_0705-blackrock2-400x300.jpg)
Asset Management Firms Are Gaining Power Over Housing, Hospitals, Water and More
Brett Christophers explains how asset managers like BlackRock and Blackstone have come to “own the world.”
![The sun sets along 42nd Street as light smoke from wildfires in Canada begins to drift into the northeast on June 15, 2023, in New York City.](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2023/06/2023_0623-sunset-400x300.jpg)
El Niño Is About to Accelerate the Global Climate Crisis. It’s Time for Action.
The extreme heat of the upcoming El Niño years should compel us to subordinate profit motives to urgent climate goals.
![A man in military uniform patrolls refugees as they sleep on the floor of a warehouse](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2023/06/2023_0621-kalamata-shipwreck-400x300.jpg)
Mediterranean Migrant Shipwreck Reveals Cost of Cruel European Asylum Policies
Eighty-one people have been confirmed dead, but roughly 500 more likely drowned when the ship sank, locked below decks.
![House Speaker Kevin McCarthy departs with Reps. Patrick McHenry and Garret Graves after a press conference following the House's passage of the Fiscal Responsibility Act, raising the debt ceiling on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, May 31, 2023, in Washington, D.C.](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2023/06/2023_0609-mccarthy-gop-400x300.jpg)
For GOP, Debt Ceiling Deal Was Never About Debt — It Was About Conserving Power
Conservatives weaponized the debt deal to consolidate power. Let’s use the budget to create new power structures.
![A care worker helps a senior woman put on her shoes and socks](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2023/05/GettyImages-1372701898-400x300.jpg)
Let’s Recognize That Care Work Is the Labor That Makes All Other Labor Possible
As a former direct care worker, I am fighting for living wages and labor protections for this underpaid work force.
![Walmart President and CEO Doug McMillon speaks at the Walmart annual formal business and shareholders meeting on May 30, 2018 in Rogers, Arkansas.](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2023/05/GettyImages-963728872-400x300.jpg)
Report Reveals Top CEOs Dodge Taxes on Nearly $9 Billion in Retirement Funds
Some executives can expect to receive monthly retirement checks larger than their workers’ median annual pay.
![A restaurant worker participates in a "Wage Strike" demonstration, organized by One Fair Wage, outside of the Old Ebbitt Grill restaurant on May 26, 2021, in Washington, D.C.](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2023/05/2023_0517-minimum-wage-400x300.jpg)
In Louisiana, Rock-Bottom Minimum Wage Is Becoming a Liability for Republicans
Republicans stubbornly defend $7.25 an hour in a state where more than one in four children live in poverty.
![A truck with a digital screen reading "TAX ME IF YOU CAN" beside a photo of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos drives past the U.S. capitol under a cloudy gray sky](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2023/05/2023_0515-tax-bezos-400x300.jpg)
“Greatest Wealth Transfer in History” Is Poised to Further Entrench Inequality
A recent New York Times analysis demonstrates that "we are not taxing the very wealthy enough,” said one professor.
![Takia Bridgeforth, lead teacher at Ms. Ps Child and Family Services, comforts a baby on December 20, 2022 in Washington, D.C.](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2023/05/GettyImages-1245879247-400x300.jpg)
For-Profit Child Care Chains See Opportunity to Monopolize Imperiled Industry
The catastrophic state of U.S. child care is rooted in capitalism, not the pandemic.