Slashdot Mirror
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."
here
Anyway is'nt it funny that US Tech industry is going downhill for the workers whil the Industry is making money for the "bosses" (and the investors)?
I know it might trump your little party for the poor, helpless little people that make it all happen, but my salary has been steadily going up for the past 5 years, despite the tech bust. In 1999, the median salary for a US Systems Administrator was $64,271. As of 2002, the average salary was $67,675 ($67,920 for males, and $64,946 for females).
So even through a massive recession, and firings and layoffs, the average salary is 5.296% higher than it was 3 years earlier. So, which industry is going downhill again?
"It's better to have a gun and not need it than need a gun and not have it." ~ Christian Slater, True Romance
Actually, the top 1% of income earners in America pay 37.42% of the federal income taxes... but they only make 20.81% of the money. Seems to me that if they make 20.81% of the money, they should pay 20.81% of the taxes... but wait, that would mean they should get a TAX CUT. The top 50% of income earners in America pay 96.09% of the taxes... and in case you're wondering, if you make over $27,682 per year, you're RICH, and you pay most of the taxes.
"It's better to have a gun and not need it than need a gun and not have it." ~ Christian Slater, True Romance
You can see how much tax they paid here. It's not quite all of the same people though, since the latest data that the IRS published is from 2000 .
This phrase is really starting to annoy me. If you define "the rich" as "everybody who pays taxes", then yes, the recent tax cuts were "tax cuts for the rich". But that definition is obviously ridiculous, so the phrase "tax cuts for the rich" really doesn't apply to the Bush tax cuts. Please learn the definitions of the words you use before you speak again.
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed are not necessarily my own, as I've not yet had my medication today.
BG went up $3B Bezos went up by more than $3B. Either way, even if it was up by the exact same amount Bezos made more percentage wise.
Show me some real statistics
I'll show you mine... now you can show us all yours. Just gots to love Google for hunting this stuff down.
Who pays the piper?
Who pays income taxes?
Income Tax: Who Pays? IRS Figures for 2000
What I still don't get is why folks are so hot on upping tax rate on the very folks that are capable of hiring employees? Isn't the whole point in getting a sagging economy turned around to get the unemployment numbers down? Last I checked, social programs don't hire people.
The line must be drawn here. This far. No further.
Not unfair at all.
My wife and I are having a baby. There is no doubt both she and the baby are actually going to survive the birthing process, and it's a pretty solid bet the kid is going to live to adulthood. That cannot be said of many places in the world, or even here before modern medicine. (And gripe what you will about the cost, but we HAVE it.)
"Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival."
--Dr.W.Edwards Deming
You are full of crap.
US Unemployment Rate since 1948
US Inflation Rate History
US Per Capita Income History Since 1950
So I'm guessing hes given around 0.1% of his wealth away.
Try about 60%. There was a Businessweek article in December 2002 that ranked the biggest philanthropists in the world (not sure if non-subscribers can read this article from the archives) -- he's ranked #1 in terms of amounts given. My eyeball estimate is that he's #6 in terms of percentage of wealth given (which is somewhat misleading, since Gordon Moore and James Stowers apparently committed more money than they were worth, and so would be ranked #1 and #2 in terms of percentage).
I'd be impressed if the man gave away a few billion dollars at a time and not in stupid ways. When he spends money on schools I'm impressed when he actually builds a school, but usually he does not build a school, usually he just donates Microsoft products (big deal) to schools.
Gates's main focus is eradicating diseases in developing countries. Yeah, that's really stupid. He has also given the largest single private grant in history -- for a global vaccine program. Again, very stupid. Whatever.
BTW, Larry Ellison (Oracle) is ranked #1 for biggest cheapskate -- he has given away 0.4% of his worth. Steve Ballmer is the 5th biggest cheapskate. And, to me, worst of all, given who he is and what he stands for for so many people, Warren Buffett is the 6th biggest cheapskate -- he's given away only $230 million of his $36 billion.
The top 5% of income earners took home more than 22% of total family income in 2001, this very same top 5% of income earners pays nearly 50% of all income taxes. The bottom 60% of income earners taking home more than 31% of the income, this bottom 60% pays less than 10% of the income taxes.
I recently went to Roatan, Honduras, where this is especially true. On the small island where I was for a couple weeks this summer, I saw the effect of a free clinic that has existed for only seven years. While the locals used to have children one after the other, just to account for the high mortality rate, now there is a huge number of children under 5 (compared to the number of teenagers). Women live through childbirth, something all but the youngest members of that society know that they are blessed with. That is only one (albeit a very important one) aspect of their life, I'm sure you can extrapolate that to other aspects as well.