Forbes report: Billionaires’ wealth grew by 36 percent in last year

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/mar2004/forb-m09.shtml

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As at least a billion people on the planet subsist on the equivalent of a dollar a day or less, the concentration of wealth among a handful of people at the top has set new records. In its current issue, Forbes magazine lists a record 587 individuals and family units worth $1 billion or more, an increase from 476 in 2003. The combined wealth of this year’s billionaires also reached record levels—a staggering $1.9 trillion, an increase of $500 billion in just one year, due largely to resurging stock prices over the last 12 months. The wealth of these few hundred people exceeds the gross domestic product of the world’s 170 poorest countries combined and equals nearly 4 percent of the annual production of the entire world.
</snip>

That's news to me. Say, isn't there a certain presidential candidate who bears the same name? I wonder what he thinks about the staggering concentration of wealth in the world. Maybe someone in the media will ask him...

...he might be the most competent president ever. He's getting everything he promissed done.

I wonder how much of that 36% was made up simply of tax cuts, and how much from driving down the value of labor, which makes large corporations more profitable. A big chunk of it has to be from the lower tax rate on dividend income, and another part of it is probably from the SEC failing to enact REAL reform of the public equities markets.

to the beat of his drum: since he is omnipotent, hopefully he is omniscient and humane because neither the Congress, the Supreme Court, the mainstream media, nor most of the general public question any of his policies, pronouncements or actions.

n/t

The status of the one's helping to control the apparatus and keep the machine rolling probably haven't change that much (yet).

Keeping a eye on the big picture it seems more like a cattle round up, control the edges and keep the herd moving in direction you want

Just be careful, they could spook em

Since there are way more poor than super rich, it looks like a pretty obvious transfer of wealth.

In fact, the things making the poor poor are the same things making the rich rich -- consumer debt, and low wages.

...then you haven't read its articles on Kerry. :-)

Here's an example:

"While undoubtedly more intelligent and articulate than the current occupant of the White House—a random drawing from the phone book would suffice for that—Kerry is otherwise a run-of-the-mill bourgeois politician and representative of the American ruling elite, with a leaden speaking style and a tendency to pontificate and equivocate."

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/feb2004/elec-f21.shtml

Or maybe you meant Kerry should just cite the Forbes figures? But Kerry is married to a near-billionaire; somehow I don't think he'd like to draw attention to that fact. :-)

</sarcasm>

The Dems (and sensible, old school republicans) need to get this on every front page in the nation. When the infastructure of the nation is in need and workers are going without the basics, it is a tad unreasonable that the wealthiest enjoyed an increase of over one third of their income.

How much is enough? At what point do they become ashamed of the gluttony at the expense of so many who are in dire straights? Do they not see that they are pushing the limits on what is possible without complete breakdown of the society? Who is gonna buy their products when workers can't earn a living? Who is gonna save their asses when people have nothing left to loose? The gated communities had better fortify.

The second that Bush signs that bankruptcy bill he's trying to push, MILLIONS of middle class people will bail out.. Lots of people are existing on credit cards, and as long as they have that "possibility" to file at some future date, they are hanging in there, BUT.. if that law passes andgets signed, there will be a "window of opportunity" and they will jump through that window.

:grr:

Forbes.com: The Rich Get Richer

<snip>
This year Forbes reports a record 587 billionaires, including 64 newcomers. Among them, some real surprises. In a fairy tale as fantastic as her popular Harry Potter series, former welfare mother Joanne Kathleen Rowling makes her debut on Forbes' 18th annual billionaire rankings. So do two geeks who have barely turned 30: Sergey Brin and Larry Page, who created the ultrapopular Google search engine and are expected to take their company public this year. Canadian impresario Guy Laliberté, creator of Cirque du Soleil, joins the ten-figure club, as does Hong Kong's Michael Ying, whose Esprit line of apparel is spreading, Gap-like, around the world. Thanks to rising oil prices, Russia minted eight new billionaires and now has a total of 25, the third-highest concentration of billionaires in the world, trailing only the U.S. and Germany.

Just think: if she'd been living in the capitalist US rather than in socialistic Scotland, she never would have written HP because she'd have been so exhausted trying to keep body and soul together for her daughter and herself.

36% of a billionaire's income is an obscene amount. How much more did *you* make last year?

It's a big job.

but it ain't the sky.


"I have a gun."
"Looks like 'gub' to me."