Billionaires, up 15 % from a year ago..

[B Calm]

There are now 793 billionaires in the world. Gap between Rich and Poor is widening. Wages are stagnant, and the middle class is shouldering a larger tax burden. Prices for health care, housing, tuition, gas and food have soared for the working class.

Will the growing gap between the haves and have-nots ever stop?

[Junkdrawer]

1. Bushie's doing a hell of a job, huh?

And here we thought he was a failure...

[corporate_mike]

12. most new billionaires are Russian :)

[The Backlash Cometh]

2. Well, I see how the math works.

The interest of 800 billionaires overrides the interests of 6 billion people.

[slackmaster]

3. A billion today doesn't buy what a billion 15 years ago would

If you consider the effects of inflation PLUS the increase in population, it should be no surprise that there are twice as many billionaires today.

Gap between Rich and Poor is widening.

I believe that is true, but to use this particular statistic to support it would require using constant dollars and the number of billionaires per unit of population. The raw number of billionaires really doesn't prove anything.

Wages are stagnant, and the middle class is shouldering a larger tax burden. Prices for health care, housing, tuition, gas and food have soared for the working class.

As a member of the working class I have to agree that it seems so.

[rman]

5. nor does a minimum or middle class wage buy what it would 15 years ago.

Inflation affects low and middle incomes to, you know.
Don't make it sound as though the rich are poor.

[slackmaster]

10. I don't know how you got that out of what I wrote

Don't make it sound as though the rich are poor.

Maybe you should try reading my post again.

[annabanana]

4. Didn't you just love the coverage of this factoid?

Anchors drooling over those megagazilionaires.. making it sound like, with their numbers increasing like that, it was just a matter of time until YOU TOO will be among their exalted ranks.

[B Calm]

7. I came to the realization years ago that pulling yourself up by the

bootstraps is impossible! A person can't literally "pull themselves up by the bootstraps" it's impossible!!

[unblock]

9. notice they don't cover the count of the poverty-class as closely

imagine this:

"today, the ranks of billionaires swelled 15% to 793.
and, in a related story, the ranks of the penniless swelled 16% from 26,456,206 to 30,689,199."

now THAT would be one (very) small step closer to fair and balanced....

[bridgit]

6. 793 oligarchic billionaires out of 6 bil people on the planet!?!?

that's allot, you'd think the Illuminati would have cornered the world's resources by now into a mere handful of family names & crony portfoilios...what a bunch of slackers x(

[Jayhawk Lib]

8. I once heard it said but do not entirely agree

Why the rich get richer and the poor get poorer....

They keep doing the same thing over and over again.

[B Calm]

11. It's true, they keep screwing over the working class..

[mmonk]

13. and average income per household, down.

[Raine]

14. This is TERRIFIC for all of us

cause a "rising tide lifts all boats" :sarcasm: that's what Raygun always said so it must be true. :eyes: :puke:

[sutz12]

15. And of course.....

one of the 'good' stats of the Reagan administration was how many millionaires were created.

[tom_paine]

16. Civil War or Slavery, that is likely the only two choices our children

and grandchildren will have.

And they will curse our fucking names for "bequeathing" that future to them.

[B Calm]

17. The future looks dismal for the working class...

[SmokingJacket]

18. A billion is too much money for one person.

Period.