Tech Rich Get Richer

theodp writes "The economy is improving, at least for the super rich. After two years of declines, the aggregate net worth of the U.S.'s wealthiest 400 citizens leapt 10% in the past year to $995 billion, according to Forbes' annual ranking. The gains are part of a continuing shift in wealth from the East coast to the tech-centric West. Bill Gates capped off a decade in the top spot after his fortune increased by $3B to $46B. Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen held onto 3rd place, his net worth rising $1B to $22B. Amazon's Jeff Bezos, who saw his fortune expand by more than $3B to $5.1B, was the top gainer on the list. And with a measly $1.4B, Jerry Yang of Yahoo! found himself in a 16-way tie for 162nd place."

Comments

Yay

[sque]

And all i have is baked beans and spam.

2000 was a nice year

[Dancin_Santa]

I remember when the IPO went off and I was a millionaire for about 3 hours.

Then the stock price made a nice slow decent to 50 cents.

It's a little better now, but I still have to be careful how many lattes I drink.

Re:2000 was a nice year

[Anonymous Coward]

I remember when the IPO went off and I was a millionaire for about 3 hours.

ESR? Is that you?

You can tell this is true...

[Perdition]

You can tell this is true simply by going to www.rollsgreypoupon.com and checking their sales numbers of Rolls that actually have Grey Poupon dispensers installed... scary.

16-way tie?

[Diphthong]

"Jerry Yang of Yahoo! found himself in a 16-way tie for 162nd place."

C'mon, Jerry! Go mow a few lawns or something. Break that tie!

Re:16-way tie?

[mccalli]

C'mon, Jerry! Go mow a few lawns or something. Break that tie!

Reminds of a sketch on an old UK comedy series, The Two Ronnies. They had a regular sketch where a couple of tramps would muse about the world in general. Probably the best remember is:

First tramp: "If I were Rockefeller, I'd be richer than Rockefeller"
Second tramp: "How's that then? How do you reckon that?"
First tramp: "Well, I'd do a spot of window cleaning on the side..."

Cheers,
Ian

But but but

[rhadamanthus]

But George Bush said his "economic plan" helped everyone and didn't just make the rich richer! He wouldn't lie to me, would he?

---rhad

I'll tell you what I would do with all that money.

[CausticPuppy]

Two chicks at the same time.

Re:55 Billion

[Anonymous Coward]

...but only if you assume there are 336 days in a year.

FYI - 1 month != 4 weeks.

Re:News for Nerds?

[Anonymous Coward]

Is there a godwin's law for racial crap???

Oh Goodie!

[tds67]

The economy is improving for the super rich. After two years of declines, the total net worth of America's richest people rose 10 percent to $955 billion this year from 2002, according to Forbes magazine's annual ranking of the nation's 400 wealthiest individuals.

Thank God! I'm glad the super rich are doing better, because they've had a hell of a rough time.

I'd type more about this, but I'm off to the store to take back some pop bottles so I can buy some tripe to make a tripe sandwich with.

Financial event horizon?

[Moderation abuser]

Money acretes money, if you have some it earns interest just by sitting there in a bank account, never mind the higher performing investments so at what point would you have a financial event horizon?

So much money that it acts as a big black hole sucking everything else in.

Re:Oh well....

[gowen]

The last I heard, the median for income earners in America was $27,000 per year... doesn't sound so poor to me.

Could you kindly explain why you think the poor getting poorer would affect the median income?

An Interesting Fact

[jetkust]

Many people don't know this, but Bush's origional tax plan listed the actual names of the people getting a cut, and was written on a posterboard in magic marker.