$1.3 Billion Needed To Make Forbes' Richest Americans List

AP:

A billion dollars just doesn't go as far as it used to. For the first time, it takes more than $1 billion earn a spot on Forbes magazine's list of the 400 richest Americans. The minimum net worth for inclusion in this year's rankings released Thursday was $1.3 billion, up $300 million from last year. The new threshold meant 82 of America's billionaires didn't make the cut.

Collectively, the people who made the rankings released Thursday are worth $1.54 trillion, compared with $1.25 trillion last year.

Read the whole story: AP

Comments

[NewsSophisticate]

03:11 PM on 09/21/2007

Please read this article.

"The Carlyle/Haliburton Show is Shifting into 'OVERDRIVE'"

http://newssophisticate.blogspot.com/2007/09/carlylehaliburton-show-is-going-into.html

It's not looking good folks. Something EXTREMELY SHADY in the works by these 'billionaires'. Pay attention the the Dubai/Nasdaq trade and the current Carlyle deal in the UAE.

They are linked, folks.

[johnnyjust]

12:07 PM on 09/21/2007

Gates and Buffet became rich by doing things no one else can do.

Now they're giving most of their billions to charity. No one else can do that, either.

[RichardD]

11:36 AM on 09/21/2007

I simply do not know what to say that is meaningful about this list. It portends of so much, to so many people in so many different ways.

Is this what life is all about? You know I have never seen a hearse being followed by a Brinks truck.

Life's somtimes a bitch, sometimes great, then you die.

[MetalCanuck]

08:42 AM on 09/21/2007

The Rothschilds are a heck of a lot richer than these guys, Rockefeller's too.

[robinhood1]

11:41 AM on 09/21/2007

The Rothschilds may well have been Europe's wealthiest extended family prior to 1933, but they took a big financial hit during the Third Reich. One of their clan (Robert, of the French Rothschilds), was gassed at Auschwitz for refusing to sell his business to the SS at a bargain basement price. High taxes and French nationalization of the banking sector during part of the post war period did not help.

"Rich as Rockerfeller" may have been a catchy and accurate phrase in the first half of the 20th century, but it's less true today. Inheritance taxes and philanthropy have greatly diminished the Rockefeller fortune. After David (age 92) passes on, it is unlikely that any Rockefeller will make the Forbes list. But they won't be lining up for free lunches either.

Notice that there are no auto Fords or Duponts or Mellons on the list either. At one time, they were synonymous with upper class American wealth. One group that is holding its own on the list are Jews, by birth, if not by religious observance. At least 5 of the top 25 on the list are Jewish.

If the US economy starts to unravel because of the high cost of the war in Iraq or because Social Security or Medicare become unsustainable, the people on the Forbes 400 list will have the most to lose. Tax cuts are all well and good, but American capitalism is unlikely to survive in its present form if the US dollar suffers a major collapse. Owning a $30 million co-op at 740 Park Ave. won't be much good, if people are rioting in the street below.

[truthyguy]

08:23 AM on 09/21/2007

Maybe if Bush would not have eliminated their taxes, the richest on the Forbes list would have needed a mere one billion to qualify instead of 1.3 Billion. But how the hell could they squeak by without the money they saved in taxes?

[Observer1]

08:06 AM on 09/21/2007

The coincidence of numbers facinates me.

I mentioned this week that the UN was spendinding 2.5 million/year on peacekeeping in Darfur while at the same time the war in Iraq costs 2.5 million/week.

Notice today, it takes 1.3 billion to get on the Forbes list and we are investigating 6 billion in Iraq. That's at least 4 changes on the list

[Chupacabras]

01:58 AM on 09/21/2007

Six billion+ humans on the planet. More than half living in abject (or near abject) poverty. And here we are, year after year, having Forbes pompously presenting the obsenely, filthy rich list of billionaires for all of us to admire, idolize, envy, and stand in shock and awe.
They should all be more modest and shy away from Forbes overrated "yearly event", and just thank whatever supernatural entity they believe in for their inmense fortunes.

[nagamaki]

03:16 AM on 09/21/2007

"He who is not contented with what he has, would not be contented with what he would like to have."
-- Socrates

[sandiegoconservative]

01:25 AM on 09/21/2007

I am surprised there are not more comments about how horrible it is that these people have so much money due to their innovation, creation, and hard work. Still, there will always be the people who say theses guys "don't know what to do" with their earnings, or how its "obscene" and how their ideas and fortune are so horrible. When someone did not go out and earn it they always have ideas for other people's money.

Yeah, rail on Wal-Mart for low pay, yet they employ tens of thousands people and those who work hard do get promoted and can make a decent life for themselves. My cousin is testament to that. You just continue to believe this is the '50's and a stock person should be a job where you could support a house, 2 cars and 2.5 kids, which is no longer reality in today's world.

Harp on Microsoft which employes thousands and makes computer life easier. Gates took an idea and went further than you, and some of you can't stand that. And then he protected his investment from lazy S.O.B.'s who whine that he's too superior. Same with Dell. And let's not forget people who educate themselves in the financial world and play the market right.

Go out and make a living on your own for a start!

[Dopeman]

02:08 AM on 09/21/2007

Gates stole an idea and took it further than the people he stole it from.

I hope my Dems can raise your (and Bill Gates') taxes after the '08 elections so maybe I can get a bigger welfare check. I need more drugs and hookers than you've been providing for this year.

Maybe you should get a second job - I need a bigger boat too.

[bickerson4]

07:30 AM on 09/21/2007

he didn't steal anything dumbass. he bought his first operating system for a competitor. paid for it fair and square.

quit lying you lowlife scumbag.

[jerrypenguin]

02:13 AM on 09/21/2007

Rather then subject the above missive to discreet and exhaustive analysis; I will simply state the philosophy, writing style, and content is similar to that of well known contemporary authors and intellectuals. The missive is similar to that generated by well known authors Anne Coulter, Bill O'Reilly, and Rush Limbaugh.

[LIR]

01:19 AM on 09/21/2007

And we care how?

[mexamerican]

01:06 AM on 09/21/2007

time for a new revolution. it's just utter bullshit, this new guilded age. meanwhile, screw the c-ship, screw the middle class, and screw the poor. where are the goddamn pitchforks, already?

[mrcontinental]

10:56 AM on 09/21/2007

Let's do it!

[Trittydi]

11:59 PM on 09/20/2007

Two words - ob scene ~~
*

[helonias]

11:35 PM on 09/20/2007

Just rewards for the folks not getting into the kingdom of heaven.

[Earl]

08:53 AM on 09/21/2007

Superstition. Liberate yourself.

[helonias]

09:06 AM on 09/21/2007

In god we trust

[curiousasheck]

11:29 PM on 09/20/2007

The crisis in morality that we are facing today is due to the lack of good role models for young people. Let's see. We have a president who lies to the public. We have the richest man in the world whose idea of success is to crush his rivals, dominate an industry, and has so much money that he hasn't a clue what to do with it (although he is now coming around). We have sports figures who hawk clothes, and get paid more just for the use of their name and face than all the people in third world countries making those clothes. In ghettos, we have drug dealers as the most successful role models. On the Internet we have the purveyors of smut, the apologists of Neocon Land, the coulters, malkins . . . urging murder, forced obedience, torture, forceful conversion to blind dogma and worship of authority. . . in the name of Jesus?

[jrb35]

03:31 AM on 09/21/2007

Gates & Buffett are giving almost all of their money away to charity. Tens of billions of dollars. They're not all bad, you know.

[brooklyncitizen]

11:22 PM on 09/20/2007

The joys of a flourishing war economy...joys for some that is.

[jrb35]

12:31 AM on 09/21/2007

Yeah right. Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Oprah and the Google guys really made their money off the war.

[xrepublican]

10:43 PM on 09/20/2007

The uber-rich aren't depending on mere police to keep them safe......

Of course those same private security forces also serve to protect them FROM the police.... those private "guards" let the wealthy avoid subpoenas served BY the police......