America’s top 400 billionaires mark all-time highs in personal wealth!

[RageBeoulve]

While average American family makes less than it did in 1989.

It’s been five years, and despite public claims that the economy is rebounding and the worst of the recession has passed, most of America is still struggling to claw out of its collective financial pit.

But in the meantime, according to Forbes, the United States’ top 400 billionaires have not only regained everything they lost during the recession, they’re actually ahead of where they were before the crash—they’re worth a total of $2 trillion as a group, which is $300 billion more than they were worth last year, and more than twice what it was ten years ago. The average wealth among the top 400 billionaires is at an all-time record high of $5 billion, up $800 million each from last year. Next Big Future has done a great job of aggregating financial and personal data on the elite group here—including the data that the largest segment of self-made billionaires (22.0%) made their riches through finance, banking and investment.

For this group, the recession was simply a fluctuation in the overall upward trend in their wealth. Likewise, the ramifications of the criminal actions that led to the 2008 financial crisis haven’t touched those responsible. Not only have the top figures not been prosecuted or faced any significant consequences, but many are back in business, including the executives responsible for the subprime mortgage crisis.

Meanwhile, according to the US Census Bureau’s just-released annual report on incomes and poverty, average American families makes less than they did in 1989, while 15% of the US population lives in poverty. (The median American household made $51,681 in 1989, adjusted for inflation, while that same median household made $51,017 in 2012.)

So clearly, when the media reports that the recession is over, they must actually be talking about the richest Americans. Because for everybody else, things are worse than ever.

http://www.ultraculture.org/american-families-make-less-1989/

[McGiver]

An economic crash is always a redistribution of wealth.

[RageBeoulve]

An economic crash is always a redistribution of wealth.

Yeah, distributed to the wealthy.

[conlang returns]

An economic crash is always a redistribution of wealth.

Yeah, distributed to the wealthy.

Obama's recovery is a rich man's recovery

[RageBeoulve]

An economic crash is always a redistribution of wealth.

Yeah, distributed to the wealthy.

Obama's recovery is a rich man's recovery

Or, you know. THEFT.

[McGiver]

An economic crash is always a redistribution of wealth.

Yeah, distributed to the wealthy.

its an opportunity to crush some of the up and comers and have the remaining big guys put their ducks in a row.

[RageBeoulve]

An economic crash is always a redistribution of wealth.

Yeah, distributed to the wealthy.

its an opportunity to crush some of the up and comers and have the remaining big guys put their ducks in a row.

Exactly, man. We don't see eye to eye on a lot of things but you seem to have a perfect understanding of this shit here.

[RageBeoulve]

[MLA]

Rich FTW!

[RageBeoulve]

Rich FTW!

[Gopher Gary]

Rich FTW!

That's my kind of woman. 

[ZEGH8578]

People should _stop thinking VALUE_ appears from nowhere.

If people print too much money, its VALUE will drop.

So... what happens when global society goes into recession? the money has to go somewhere, it can't just vanish, can it!?

So, all time recession = all time boost for the fat-cats.

Let's just roll their heads now, and maybe FINALLY get it into our heads: Society should NOT be privatized!

[TheoK]

I'm not at all against private richness etc, the thing is that both European aristocrats and royals as well as many American oil and railway "barons" didn't get rich in a fair way. They literally stole from the weaker because they could.

[ZEGH8578]

I'm not at all against private richness etc, the thing is that both European aristocrats and royals as well as many American oil and railway "barons" didn't get rich in a fair way. They literally stole from the weaker because they could.

Nothing is "all or nothing", thats why I said "privatize society" (all of society)

A friend of mine is much more hardcore than I am, and I tried to explain my position to him:

There's good, honest entrepreneurism, where someone actually HAS LUCK as well as hard work.
Hard work as the only tool, is a big fat myth. Floor moppers work hard their entire lives - BUT
I am not gonna stand in the way of someones good combination of work and fortune.
Someone _can_ sell enough kebabs from his private stand, to afford a Ferrari - I've seen it happen.

But one Ferrari is something real capitalists will only laugh at.

Real "fat-cat"-ism is _not possible_ without stepping on other people, holding someone else down, banishing whole groups of people from ever making something of themselves.

There is a line crossed.

(in other words, we agree, I just wanted to point that out )

Also, my dad works like a donkey, gets taxed, and is jolly fine with it.
The ferrari-guy gets taxed, and is fine with it, so those with billions of fucking dollars, cry and moan like babies, they deserve a good, cold beating.

[McGiver]

I'm not at all against private richness etc, the thing is that both European aristocrats and royals as well as many American oil and railway "barons" didn't get rich in a fair way. They literally stole from the weaker because they could.

this is why the independent farmer will not always be the independent farmer.  Not even if he had an AK47