413=$1.5 Trillion

[marmar]

from the Working Life blog:



413=$1.5 Trillion

by Jonathan Tasini
Thursday 10 of March, 2011


Were you wondering whether the title refers to the cost to build 413 high-speed railway lines? Or perhaps 413 wind turbines to address global warming? Or maybe for $1.5 trillion you were thinking we could construct 413 new factories for businesses to create hundreds of thousands of new jobs? Nah. Here it is: we now have 413 billionaires in the country whose net worth totals $1.5 trillion.

From the Financial Times' reporting of the new billionaire class numbers:

The number of billionaires in leading emerging economies has surpassed the number of those in Europe for the first time and is quickly closing in on the US, according to new figures from Forbes.

The US still has the world’s most billionaires, with 413 individuals with a total net worth of $1,500bn.(emphasis added)

Remember, now this is just billionaires. We aren't even diving into the net worth of the people worth $500 million or $100 million or a paltry $10 million--all of whom are being given even more tax breaks because they need some more cash.

David Cay Johnston, the expert writer on taxes, pointed out not too long ago that if you were in the top 400 of the wealthiest people in the country--which pretty much covers the 413 billionaires--if you had to live only on the money you got from all the tax cuts given out since 1964, your best year in that top 400 would bring you $66.5 million, which, if you invested it at just 5 percent, would give each of those 400 people $247,000 a month to live on. ............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.workinglife.org/blogs/view_post.php?content_id=15125

[chill_wind]

1. K & R.

[Scuba]

2. Yet they want teachers to bail them out.