Did Ben Carson really just say you could take everything from the Top 1% and apply it to the national debt and "not make a dent"? #GOPDebate
— Drew Gibson (@SuppressThis) October 29, 2015
He did, in fact, say that.
According to Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman, the top 1% own at least 41% of American wealth, which works out to at least $22,240,880,000,000. (See Table 1 in this paper.)
The national debt is, as of this writing, somewhat less than that figure.
I’m not suggesting that nationalizing all the wealth of the top 1% is a great idea, but the math is what it is, and it isn’t exactly brain surgery.
