Then I'd tell you I was talking about America.
Despite a hideous economy, the 400 richest Americans increased their net worth by an average of 8% according to Forbes Magazine.
The super-rich got even wealthier this year, despite the stumbling economy.
Forbes magazine released its annual list of the 400 richest Americans on Wednesday, and their combined net worth climbed 8% this year, to $1.37 trillion. Wealth rose for 217 members of the list, while 85 saw a decline.
Bill Gates is yet again the richest man in America. The founder of Microsoft, the world's largest software maker, is first on the Forbes list with an estimated fortune of $54 billion, up from $50 billion in 2009. He's followed by billionaire investor Warren Buffett, who is worth $45 billion.
Larry Ellison, chief executive of Oracle, stood at No. 3 with $20 billion.
Christy Walton took the No. 4 spot, while members of her family -- whose fortune comes from Wal-Mart -- took spots 7 through 9.
Charles and David Koch, of private energy conglomerate Koch Industries, tied for No. 5 at $21.5 billion each. Both men saw their wealth skyrocket by $5.5 billion from 2009.
Michael Bloomberg, the mayor of New York City, rounded out the list at No. 10 with $18 billion.
So going back to my Pareto distribution economy post from earlier this week, it's sobering to find out that the top 0.00013% of America controls some 2.5% of the wealth of the entire country.
That's still two and a half times the combined net worth of the bottom half of the American people, some 155 million of us are worth the same as about the top 155 people on this list. The bottom 50% of the country accounts for 1% of the country's total combined net worth of roughly 55 trillion dollars.
Land of the free, home of the brave...
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If I told you that a couple of hundred people had the same net worth as the entire bottom half of a country, you'd call that country a third world hellhole, more than likely. You'd ask how it got that way and rail against European Socialism or Communism or decry a evil dictator whose fascism is ruining the place and say that what they needed was free-market capitalism like America.
No, I would think it's America because of the Warren Buffets, Donald Trumps, Bill Gates, but in your warped mine it should be illegal to have so much wealth. It doesn't matter that they made money, hell sitting a ton of money in a relatively low interest CD, etc would return a profit. Smart investments, I made 1k when the market started to make a recovery and if I had more money to invest I would have. Guess where I made my money? Those evil people at Bank of America and Citi Bank. People like Bill Gates and Warren Buffet didn't get rich by falling into it.
Land of the free, home of the brave...
Exactly, that's America where idiots can worry about someone else's bank account and someone can obtain as much wealth as they possibly want.
Is this going to be the new Dem platform? Instead of running on healthcare or what they've done for the economy, it will instead be From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs
Class warfare at it's finest. Prejudice against someone for having money is as fail as prejudice against someone for their skin color. Guess you could sum this up as hypocrisy at it's finest.
Right. And if you would kindly show me where in that post I said "this kind of wealth should be illegal" and said that America should institute socialism in order to correct it...
I'm just pointing out America has something of a wealth imbalance issue. The numbers are quite clear about this.
But the only one engaging in class warfare is you. You're putting words in my mouth that I never said in order to win an argument I never made.
Sad, really. You can't argue with my actual posts, so you go and make them up.
"Class warfare at it's finest. Prejudice against someone for having money is as fail as prejudice against someone for their skin color. Guess you could sum this up as hypocrisy at it's finest."
and yet a BLACK blogger has for some reason attracted your attention as the most hypocritical of all liberals here in america.
you'd be funny if you weren't so clueless and deluded.
"but in your warped mine it should be illegal..."
were you really so upset by this post that you managed to get "mine" and "mind" mixed up or are you even stupider than i thought? you're a poster boy for the inflated and unearned sense of privilege among some members of the white middle class. a regular triple threat: a below-average thinker, a below-average writer and a below-average speller who somehow believes himself to be some brilliantly clever john galt-ian superman. try coming up with an original idea (ie: any concept NOT already run into the ground over at the Reason website) at some point before you die; your brain may be pleasantly surprised.
dont forget with below-average trolls on his website
Way to go, Anonymous!
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