- The United States' top 400 wealthiest people are now
all billionaires for the first time, Forbes magazine has reported in its
annual survey of the country's wealthiest people.
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- The collective net worth of the wealthiest Americans
increased by $120 billion over the past year to $1.25 trillion.
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- Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, kept his top spot on
the Forbes list for the 13th straight year as his fortune grew to $53bn.
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- Number two on the list was Warren Buffett, the famous
investor, who announced plans this year to give away 85 per cent of his
fortune. He saw his net worth increase to $46bn, Forbes said.
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- The top climber on the list was Sheldon Adelson, a self-made
Las Vegas casino mogul who joined the top 10, listed third on the list
with a net worth of $20.5bn.
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- Fourth richest on the list was Larry Ellison, founder
of business software giant Oracle with a net worth of $19.5bn.
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- Five members of the Walton family, the heir to the Wal-Mart
supermarket fortune, were among the top 11 on the list. Jim Walton was
the wealthiest at number six on the list with $15.7bn, followed by his
sister Christy with $15.6bn and brother S Robson Walton with $15.6bn.
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- Google's co-founders, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, were
also prominent on the list. Brin was number 12 with $14.1bn and Page
was next in line $14bn, Forbes said. Both men are the youngest on the list
at 33 years old.
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- More than one in five billionaires came from the western
US state of California, and about one in seven came from New York.
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- In contrast, the US Department of Labour's Bureau of
Labour Statistics says that the median income of the nation's 105.9 million
full-time wage and salary workers is $34,268 per year.
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- http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/BEB2BE53-BBE9-4E28-B9A1-A0869109137E.htm
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- Comment Bill Koehnlein 9-23-6
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- The news article above notes that the net worth of the
400 richest people in the United States collectively stands at 1.2 trillion
dollars. In the second quarter 2006, US GDP reached $13,209,700,000,000,
that is, slightly more than 13 trillion dollars [Source: United States
Department of Comerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis https://bea.gov/bea/newsrel/gdpnewsrelease.htm
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- In other words, 400 individuals own almost ten percent
of all the wealth of the United States.
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- The US Bureau of the Census estimated that the total
United States population was almost 298 million as of January 1, 2006
See: http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/population/006222.html
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- 2005 US *per capita* income was $34,586 [Source: Infoplease
at http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0104547.html and the *average*
salary (in 2002) was $36,764. In 2004, the US median income (that is, 50%
of all income is below that figure and 50% is above) was $44,389 [See Infoplease
at http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0104688.html
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- In 2004, 12.7 percent of the total United States population
lived in poverty. Poverty was defined as having an income of $9060 for
a single adult over the age of 65 (in other words, if your income was $9061
you were not impoverished); $9827 for an adult under 65; $13,020 for a
single parent with one child, and $15,219 for a single parent with two
kids. Impoverished families (that is, two adults in a household) had an
income that ranged from the poverty level figure of $12,649 (no children
in the household) to $22,543 (for a three-child family) [Source: National
Poverty Center at the University of Michigan http://www.npc.umich.edu/poverty/
This translates to 37 million people living in poverty in 2004 [Source:
Infoplease at http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0104520.html
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- Note that "poverty" and "low-income"
are distinct classifications. Low-income does not officially imply poverty.
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- The cost to date of the war against the Iraqi people
and the occupation of that country is over 316.6 billion dollars [Source:
National Priorities Project http://nationalpriorities.org/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=182
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- Estimates of the *ultimate* cost of the war range from
a low of 750 billion dollars to a high of 1.2 trillion dollars [Source:
Linda Bilmes and Joseph E. Stiglitz: Economic Costs of the Iraq War--An
Appraisal Three Years after the Beginning of the Conflict http://www2.gsb.columbia.edu/faculty/jstiglitz/cost_of_war_in_iraq.pdf
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- In other words, the cost of the war over time will equal
almost 10 percent of the current US GDP and the wealth of the top 400 richest
individuals in the US will equal the highest estimated cost of war.
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- Solution? Make those bums pay their fair share. We'll
see the war end overnight! -Bill Koehnlein
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