To trim our richest down to democratic size, we need to think big.
by Sam Pizzigati, Inequality.org
How rich have America’s super rich become? The annual compensation of Steve Schwarzman, the chief exec of the private-equity colossus Blackstone Inc., offers up one telling yardstick.
In 2023, we learned earlier this year, Schwarzman’s take-home actually fell some 30 percent off what he collected the year before. But Schwarzman’s overall payday for that year, even after that tanking, still amounted to a jaw-dropping $896.7 million.

The current personal net worth of Blackstone’s CEO? The Bloomberg Billionaires Index puts that figure at a sweet $42.3 billion.
Schwarzman’s current political net worth? That remains to be seen. In the 2020 presidential election cycle, this Wall Street titan spent over $27 million on donations to his favorite office-seekers, over five times what he spent in the 2016 election cycle. Since 2020, Schwarzman’s personal fortune — what he has available to shower down on his election-day favorites — has more than doubled.
Recent Posts
John Fetterman Single-Handedly Tanks Effort to Rein Trump in on Iran
May 18, 2026
Take Action Now Fetterman was the lone Democrat to vote against the latest war powers resolution.By Edith Olmsted, The New Republic Senator John…
Anyone Noting Israel’s Crimes Will Be Accused of “Blood Libel”
May 18, 2026
Take Action Now Genocide apologists have declared the New York Times’s Nicholas Kristof’s report on Israeli soldiers’ rape of Palestinians is “blood…
Trump’s War on Iran Is a Symptom of Unchecked US Military Power
May 17, 2026
Take Action Now Virtually everyone killed by the US during the “war on terror” has been a person of color, writer Norman Solomon says.By George…
How to Stop Mega Gerrymandering From Scrambling Democracy
May 16, 2026
Take Action Now If the Democrats wake up, fire their profiteering consultants, and run on a specific “Compact for America,” they could landslide the…




