Forbes 400 list: 2010 has been very good to the richest Americans

[Hannah Bell]

While 2010 has seen the vast majority of the US population suffer the consequences of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression—mass joblessness, wage cutting, plummeting home prices, record foreclosures, and spending cuts by near-bankrupt states and cities—for the handful of plutocrats who control the nation’s wealth it has been a very good year indeed.

According to Forbes magazine, the net worth of the 400 richest Americans increased by 8 percent in 2010, to $1.37 trillion, in the year ending August 25. The figure is slightly greater than the entire gross domestic product of India, population 1.2 billion. It is also more than 10 times greater than the $121 billion combined budget deficit of all 50 states for 2011.

The household wealth for the great majority is going in the opposite direction. Last week, the Federal Reserve revealed that the net worth of all US households and non-profits fell 2.8 percent in the second quarter, to $53.5 trillion. This means that the richest 400 Americans have about 2.6 percent of the total national household wealth, the other 310 million splitting the remainder.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/sep2010/forb-s24.shtml

[The Magistrate]

1. That Increase, Ma'am,Came Entirely From the U.S. Treasury And Federal Reserve

[mediaman007]

2. I think that FICA payments covered the tax cuts for them.

[blindpig]

9. So?

A direct transfer of wealth without even the bogus unreality of the usual capitalists theft.

They get bolder by the day. Hubris.

[leftstreet]

3. K&R

[DailyGrind51]

4. And, we can all see the many jobs they've created, right?

[doc03]

5. You know the Democrats are pathetic when CNBC Repug

Joe Kernan said the Democrats wimped out on the tax cuts. They campaigned against extending the tax cuts for the rich and had a winning issue then threw in the towel. They would have been better of just extending them, now the Repugs can still beat them over the head with taxes, they just multiplied their losses.

[Scuba]

6. That's about 3.4 Billion dollars a pop. It'd be a shame to ask those poor....

...people to give a little more to support the country that made them rich.

[Starry Messenger]

7. k & r

[HughBeaumont]

8. The past 234 years have been very good to the richest Americans.

Murka LUUUUUURRRRVVES their wealthy. "Don't tuches the welthah! I'm-a gonner BE welthah sumdeigh, n' I wants all thuh same shit THEY have!"

Don't Stop . . . Believin' . . .

[blindpig]

10. I don't think most people are like that.

Though that attitude is strong among the petit bourgeois, which is where the TB's originate.

[HughBeaumont]

11. Oh, no doubt most people would just be happy making a good living.

Or having a wage that keeps up with the cost of living.

I think if we had that, we wouldn't need to have such myths as Horatio Alger.

It's just that the numbers of the TBs are swelling and the aggravation stems from the fact that they quite often either blame the wrong people for their problems or think this long-term, complex problem can all be solved with a quick-fix solution.

[blindpig]

12. They are as strong as the media makes them.

There really aren't that many people with their particular set of grievances. At the end of the day they are libertarians, greedy assholes looking for a philosophical basis for their anti-social behavior. It is their religion and Capitalism is their god.