Billionaires up, America down

[C~B~N really likes Holly Sklar's writing. She has
done her research and wields a might pen! The
government ought to listen....]

By Holly Sklar
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune News Service
Copyright (c) 2007 Holly Sklar

When it comes to producing billionaires, America
is doing great.

Until 2005, multimillionaires could still make the Forbes
list of the 400 richest Americans. In 2006, the Forbes 400
went billionaires only.

This year, you'd need a Forbes 482 to fit all the
billionaires.

A billion dollars is a lot of dough. Queen Elizabeth II,
British monarch for five decades, would have to add $400
million to her $600 million fortune to reach $1 billion. And
she'd need another $300 million to reach the Forbes 400
minimum of $1.3 billion. The average Forbes 400 member
has $3.8 billion.

When the Forbes 400 began in 1982, it was dominated
by oil and manufacturing fortunes. Today, says Forbes,
"Wall Street is king."

Nearly half the 45 new members, says Forbes, "made
their fortunes in hedge funds and private equity. Money
manager John Paulson joins the list after pocketing more
than $1 billion short-selling subprime credit this summer."

The 25th anniversary of the Forbes 400 isn't party time
for America.

We have a record 482 billionaires -- and record foreclosures.

We have a record 482 billionaires -- and a record 47
million people without any health insurance.

Since 2000, we have added 184 billionaires -- and 5
million more people living below the poverty line.

The official poverty threshold for one person was a
ridiculously low $10,294 in 2006. That won't get you two
pounds of caviar ($9,800) and 25 cigars ($730) on the
Forbes Cost of Living Extremely Well Index.

The $20,614 family-of-four poverty threshold is
lower than the cost of three months of home flower
arrangements ($24,525).

Wealth is being redistributed from poorer to richer.

Between 1983 and 2004, the average wealth of the
top 1 percent of households grew by 78 percent, reports
Edward Wolff, professor of economics at New York
University. The bottom 40 percent lost 59 percent.

In 2004, one out of six households had zero or negative
net worth. Nearly one out of three households had less
than $10,000 in net worth, including home equity.
That's before the mortgage crisis hit.

In 1982, when the Forbes 400 had just 13 billionaires,
the highest paid CEO made $108 million and the
average full-time worker made $34,199, adjusted for
inflation in 2006.

Last year, the highest paid hedge fund manager
hauled in $1.7 billion, the highest paid CEO made
$647 million, and the average worker made $34,861,
with vanishing health and pension coverage.

The Forbes 400 is even more of a rich men's club
than when it began. The number of women has dropped
from 75 in 1982 to 39 today.

The 400 richest Americans have a conservatively
estimated $1.54 trillion in combined wealth. That
amount is more than 11 percent of our $13.8 trillion
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) -- the total annual value
of goods and services produced by our nation of 303
million people. In 1982, Forbes 400 wealth measured
less than 3 percent of U.S. GDP.

And the rich, notes Fortune magazine, "give away a
smaller share of their income than the rest of us."
[C~B~N has found that to be true. The truly rich are the
absolute worst 'tippers' of anyone! ...Yes, I have had some
interesting jobs through-out my life! Each one has taught
me something!]

Thanks to mega-tax cuts, the rich can afford more
mega-yachts, accessorized with helicopters and
mini-submarines. Meanwhile, the infrastructure of
bridges, levees, mass transit, parks and other public
assets inherited from earlier generations of taxpayers
crumbles from neglect, and the holes in the safety net
are growing.

The top 1 percent of households -- average income
$1.5 million -- will save a collective $79.5 billion on
their 2008 taxes, reports Citizens for Tax Justice.

That's more than the combined budgets of the
Transportation Department, Small Business
Administration, Environmental Protection Agency
and Consumer Product Safety Commission.

Tax cuts will save the top 1 percent a projected $715
billion between 2001 and 2010. And cost us $715 billion
in mounting national debt plus interest.

The children and grandchildren of today's underpaid
workers will pay for the partying of today's plutocrats
and their retinue of lobbyists.

It's time for Congress to roll back tax cuts for the wealthy
and close the loophole letting billionaire hedge fund
speculators pay taxes at a lower rate than their
secretaries.

[I think we need to forget raising the minimum wage.
I think we need to get a law on the books that
guarantees American workers the
RIGHT to a LIVING WAGE. Therefore
insuring a cost of living increase each
year.]

Inequality has roared back to 1920s levels.

It was bad for our nation then.

It's bad for our nation now.

Holly Sklar is co-author of "Raise the Floor: Wages and
Policies That Work for All of Us" and "A Just Minimum
Wage: Good for Workers, Business and Our Future."
She can be reached at hsklar@aol.com.
Copyright (c) 2007 Holly Sklar

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