Forbes 400 List: Forbes Releases Names Of America's Richest People

Forbes:

The rich haven't gotten richer--or poorer--this year. The price of admission to this, the 27th edition of The Forbes 400, is $1.3 billion for the second year in a row. The assembled net worth of America's wealthiest rose by $30 billion--only 2%--to $1.57 trillion.

Read the whole story: Forbes

Comments

[Gernuser]

To make matters far worse, consider what the US government has actually done to fix the underlying problems? Nothing

good articles; http://iamned.blogspot.com

The government has put the same punch bowl out that got us into the mess in the first place. More debt and consumption and don't worry about paying it back. (Berbnanke= Greenspan II)

[Peter Noble 2]

Why would anyone want to be listed? With the current climate of furious anger against the ruling elite of corporate thieves, sorry talented business men: this is an assassination list writ large.
If I were worth tens of billions I'd want my name off the list right now.
Seriously the best thing the super rich can do is hide. Someone one day will get through the bodyguards, might be a maid, or a butler or the captain of a jet who has gone bankrupt and thinks hell why not take Bill Gates or Steve Jobs with him towards the spiraling earth below. It's like Fight Club but a horrible possibility.

Also anyone who thinks Gates is worth all that loot is dumber than a person who thinks Apple computers never break down... damn that's me!:)

[ErnestineBass]

"Why would anyone want to be listed?

What's the point of having money if you can't flaunt it, dear?

Just one facet of the psychosis known as "being rich".

[YankeeCanuck]

Super rich? So?
What would be far more interesting would be a compilation of ,say the 100,000 richest Americans. And--what they do with their money, how they got it.

[jennylynn]

Why would you care how they got their money or what they do with it?

[ErnestineBass]

The name John Gotti or Bernie Madoff ring a bell with yah?

Lord have mercy...

[olephart]

$1.3 billion to join the list. Missed it by that much (holds thumb and index finger slightly apart).

[FoonTheElder]

Here's a perfect example of how the richest get even richer.

No income taxes on the $845 million Sam Zell/Tribune Co. sale of the Chicago Cubs

More welfare for big corporations and the wealthy. The GOP would have you believe the wealthy pay more than their fair share in taxes. They don't.

http://ctj.org/taxjusticedigest/archive/2009/09/no_tax_on_the_845_million_sale.php
www.ctj.org/pdf/taxday2009.pdf

[gretcheno]

How the h3ll did he not pay taxes on this amount, and they audited me for making less than 40k.

[FoonTheElder]

Taking advantage of tax law by keeping 5% of the investment.

You're much easier for the IRS to audit than a billionaire. You can't afford a dozen expensive tax lawyers to argue your case for years.

[IndelibleVoice]

The line between tax evasion and tax avoidance is blurry--I guess knowing the difference can legally add millions more in the bank.

[drymartini1]

its not blurry.

Tax Evasion is dodging taxes by misfiling returns or misclassifying items.
Tax Avoidance is taking advantage of all the breaks that are there in the code.

Tax evasion: classify your personal car for business purposes fradulently.

Tax Avoidance: contribute max to tax deferred accounts, buy dividend stocks in tax deferred accounts and capital gain stocks in taxable accounts and sell only when you need to.

[speakingtruth2power]

Sure, they can show a loss but the rich still end up owning more of the pie with each swing.

[swaneer]

HP is commenting on, and linking to last year's (2008) article. There is a new 2009 article.

[mtracy9]

"There's class warfare, all right, but it's my class, the rich class, that's making war, and we're winning." --Warren Buffett, 2006

[speakingtruth2power]

and the MSM and our reps all insist that this is a myth.

[Bude]

Who's up,
who's down,
who cares?

[BankerTee]

A rather apt comment, given your avatar. Love it!

[texaz3step]

One way to make money, Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones sold 30,000 Party pass on the opening day of his new stadium. The funny thing was that there was only room for 15,000 people. Each ticket cost $29.00. He failed to mention this small fact. $435.000 in his pocket and did not have to give up anything.

[inorbit]

Damn, missed it again.

*sigh*

[sposton]

I could not care less who is up or down on the 400 list. This is just another horse race that detracts us from seeing the true reality. Perhaps understanding the "L" curve would be a more valuable bit of knowledge. See

http://www.lcurve.org/

and then zoom in a zoom out to see the large picture.

[Fabini]

I think of how many long hard hours the Walton children must have spent, unloading trucks, stocking shelves, and running the checkout counter, to earn all that money. They are an inspiration to Walmart workers everywhere.

[thankulord13]

That is what I am saying, Bill Gates nothing, this one family is worth about one hundred billion dollars.

[FoonTheElder]

The Waltons are now worth about $1 trillion. It was mostly made off of driving down the wage scales of much of the world and helping put Americans out of work, through their supplier tactics.

Pure Reaganomics and trickle down. A few giant winners and a huge number of losers.

The Anti-trust Case Against Walmart
http://www.harpers.org/archive/2006/07/0081115

[sposton]

And so many losers think that is good!

[flymic]

fannnneeeddddd

[sposton]

I don't think people have any idea of scale of this. Here is an instructive video of income distribution:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woIkIph5xcU

[levi501]

Wealth is not the same as income...

For example, your income maybe $50,000 per year but your wealth is the sum of your assets minus debt. Billionaires mostly own major holdings in profitable companies and some may not even earn a paycheck in a given year. Subsequently, their wealth isn't reflective of their disposable cash.

What's truly impressive is how much wealth they've brought millions of people. How many people do these billionaires employ? How much value has Google, Microsoft, Walmart, Fidelity, and etc. brought the entire world?

Instead of bemoaning their wealth we should celebrate it! We should admire the millions of products enhanced, better services provided, and millions of jobs created...

[Fabini]

Wealth celebration, particularly others wealth, is always a party killer.

[JScott]

Yup for some of them others (namely the Waltons) not so much.