Annual List of Richest Americans Released

[Pale_Rider]

Hey, things are looking up for the rich! Whatdayaknow!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A31734-2003Sep18

NEW YORK - The economy is improving for the super rich. After two years of declines, the total net worth of America's richest people rose 10 percent to $955 billion this year from 2002, according to Forbes magazine's annual ranking of the nation's 400 wealthiest individuals.

[AntiCoup2K4]

1. Of course it did!

If a fucking idiot George Bush gives you a "tax cut" on taxes you never paid in the first place, that's going to add to the net worth. As well as the net worthlessness of Repukelican policies. :grr:

[KamaAina]

2. So that means the top .000014 percent controls nearly $1 trillion?

That is seriously messed up. A crowd that couldn't even fill a decent-sized theatre controls more wealth than the GDP of many countries.

Truly sick.

[Tansy_Gold]

9. And with repeal of the inheritance tax, that wealth will continue

to be concentrated and reconcentrated, until within, oh, a generation or so we will have a full-fledged inherited aristocracy that will so tightly control the wealth that no one will have any hope of rising above the economic station into which she or he is born.

[ComerPerro]

11. Just wait until they really get going

They will start buying up the stock market for dirt cheap, because now large shares can be purchased for a considerable bargain as long as the individual has the resources to buy it up and afford losing some of what they invest. But when the stock market goes up again, their shares that they bought for bargain basement prices will give them even greater wealth. Plus, there will be no taxes on the stock dividends. Moreover, they won't have to worry about an inheritance tax.

You gotta give Bush credit, he is looking out for his biggest supporters.
Too bad he hates the rest of the country, the other 99.9%

[Tansy_Gold]

12. Oh, he doesn't hate the other 99.99%. . . . .

. . . . He just sees them as the peasants who are put on the earth to do his bidding.

To wash his laundry and cook his meals and bear his children. You know, all those menial things "nice folks" don't dirty their hands with. Oh, yes, I almost forgot. And fight his wars for him.

Seriously, folks, think of it this way --

The last thing the upper .00014% really want is for the economy to recover. That would mean good jobs for the worker bees, and that might give them delusions of wanting quality education for their children, decent housing, vacations in the south of France.

[AP]

16. tax slave labor. The middle class has to work, so their income can

be taxed, so that there some wealth to give away to the rich.

That's the purpose the middle class serves to Bush. And what doesn't get taxed, gets spent paying for privatized monopolies, like utilities, and goes to paying interest on outrageous debt so that his friends at MBNA get rich.

[AP]

15. And will cycle untaxed, so that it decreases tax revenues which

will have to be made by....hmmm....perhaps, taxing EARNED INCOME EVEN MORE, perhaps, in the middle income bracket, since they're the ones who are working.

[_NorCal_D_]

3. What a suprise!

:eyes:

[stickdog]

4. Wow! If they have a really good 2004, they might even be able to afford

the Iraq War!

[LastDemInIdaho]

5. Is there a list of the richest US Senators and congress?

I thought it was posted here once.

[PROGRESSIVE1]

6. No wonder Bush thinks things are looking up!

After all, he's a wealthy oinker too!!!!

:eyes:

[Q]

7. Trickle UP economics?

- The royals love it!

[toddzilla]

8. try

www.opensecrets.org

[LastDemInIdaho]

10. The top ten richest Senators

1. John F. Kerry (D-MS) $675 million

2. Jon Corzine (D-NJ) $400 million

3. Herb Kohl (D-WS) $300 million

4. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) $200 million

5. (tie) Lincoln Chafee (R-RI) $50 million
- Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) $50 million

7. Peter Fitzgerald (R-IL) $40 million

8. Edward Kennedy (D-MS) $30 million

9. Sen. Mark Dayton (D-MN) $20 million
- Sen. Bill Frist (R-TN) $20 million

10. Sen. John Edwards (D-NC) $15 million
- Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) $10 million

[AP]

17. Only two or three people on that list worked for their money.

Corzine, Edwards and Cantwell.

The rest inherited it. (Don't know about Feinstein though.)

[LastDemInIdaho]

18. I can't think of any "work" that is worth those millions

Maybe investments but there is no "work" on this earth worth that much unless one lives and works for thousands of years with no lunch breaks.

[AP]

19. Corzine made his money from

finance, which I think is like being a leach on the working people. Cantwell built up a huge corporation. Her wealth represented a fraction of the total value of the corporation she helped build. You could say that she deserved that money. But after she left, the company's value collapsed, so you might put this wealth in the same category as Corzines.

As for Edards, for every 1 dollar he made, at least 2 were transferred to people who were injured by negligent corporations. It is good for the economy and for society when people are made responsible for the damages they cause. So you could really say that Edwards earned his money for doing something socially valuable.

[BiggJawn]

13. Damn! Left out AGAIN!

I can't win "People" rag's "Sexiest Man Alive" poll, either...

Dammit! if I can't be rich, at least let somebody consider me "sexy" again...

[AP]

14. While middle class and upper middle class saw their retirement accounts...

shrink by 50-60% in some cases.

Hmmm. Where'd all that money go?

OHHHHH I GET IT!

[Pale_Rider]

20. Just another transfer of wealth ...

... from the middle class to the upper classes.