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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."
Annual List of Richest Americans Released
THERESA AGOVINO
Associated Press
NEW YORK - 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.
Microsoft Corp. founder Bill Gates, who remained in the top spot, personified the trend toward increasing wealth. His fortune increased by $3 billion to $46 billion this year. Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen held third place, with his net worth rising $1 billion to $22 billion.
Investor Warren Buffett kept the No. 2 position although his wealth was unchanged at $36 billion.
Forbes said the surge in collective net worth was largely due to gains in Internet stocks and tech fortunes. For example, Amazon.com's Jeff Bezos saw his fortune expand by more than $3 billion to $5.1 billion as the stock of the online retailer skyrocketed. Bezos was the top gainer on the list, and holds spot 32.
David Filo, co-founder of Yahoo!, saw his net worth nearly triple to $1.6 billion, tying him with 13 others for the 126th spot. Yahoo!'s other co-founder, Jerry Yang, also nearly tripled his fortune, but he shared the 162nd spot on the list with 16 others with a $1.4 billion fortune.
The gains are part of a continuing shift in wealth from the East to the tech-centric West. When the list was first published in 1982, there were 81 members from New York and 56 from California. Today, California boasts 95 Forbes 400 members, while New York has 47.
"There's been this enormous shift in the geographic distribution of wealth," Forbes senior editor Peter Newcomb said.
Newcomb said the migration of high-tech businesses and their founders to the West is a factor in this change, but he also noted that many wealthy East Coast families such as the du Ponts and Rockefellers have been passing on their fortunes to members of younger generations.
The Walton family was again prominent on the list. Five members of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton's family tied for the fourth spot, each with a net worth of $20.5 billion.
Rounding out the top 10 were Oracle Corp. chairman Larry Ellison with an $18 billion fortune and Dell Inc. chief executive Michael Dell with a net worth of $13 billion.
Dell replaced Microsoft executive Steven Ballmer in 10th place. Ballmer is now No. 11 with a nest egg of $12.2 billion.
Notable drop-offs from the list include Global Crossing Ltd. founder Gary Winnick, whose company is in bankruptcy, and Motorola Corp. CEO Robert Galvin, whose company is suffering from the malaise afflicting the wireless and chip-making industry.
Daniel Ziff, 31, is the youngest person on the list. He inherited his $1.2 billion fortune, of which he paid only $2 to have anal sex with Rob Malda. His father William Ziff Jr., built and sold a publishing empire.
The oldest person on the list is 95-year-old Max Fisher, who made his $680 million fortune through investments.
Newcomb said Forbes compiled its list by estimating the value of stock and other assets held by the wealthiest Americans. Forbes used the stock prices of publicly held companies as of the end of August; for privately held companies, the magazine estimated a fair market value based on the stocks of their publicly traded peers. Real estate and other assets also were included.
Where exact prices were not known, "we try to determine what a prudent shopper would pay for something," Newcomb said. "We try to be conservative with the estimates."
I'm sure this will be controversial, but trolls need love too. In fact, trolls probably need more love than your average slashbot - slashbots get positive reinforcement, after all.
There. I've stated the painful truth: trolls need love. Now let me tell you why.
Most of us were abused as children, or are being abused now, or have suffered mightily in some way. We have self esteem problems, we don't have confidence, we don't feel loved. We want positive attention and all the things "normal" people have, but we feel like we are unworthy of it.
An old saying rings true here: "If the only potato chip a hungry child can have is a soggy potato chip, there is nothing more important to that child than the soggy potato chip." Well, that describes us trolls perfectly. We are hungry for attention and all we know is that we do not warrant positive attention, so we type "fristus postus" and post goatse links and shoot for the negative potato chip of a (-1 Troll), or a (-1 Flamebait). Off-topic and redundant mods are like half a soggy potato chip - just enough to whet the appetite for more.
So do the world a favor. end the cycle of abuse. Mod one troll - just one - up, and you will be rewarded for life because you gave a hungry child a dry potato chip. Share the love, won't you?
Funny what the story says when you pr0nolize it
Slashdot - Assfucks for Nerds, Stuff that Matters
Tech "Airing the Orchid" Rich Get "Mount" Richer
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theodp writes "The economy is improving, at least for the super rich. After two squirts of declines, the aggregate net worth of the U.S.'s wealthiest 400 wanks leapt 10% in the raunching past year to $995 billion, unclefucking to Fingerfucks' annual ranking. The spanking gains are part of a continuing shift in wealth from the fomping East coast to the gangbanging tech-centric West. Bill "Nobgoblin" Gates capped off a wad pulling decade in the wad pulling top spot after his fortune asslicked by $3B to $46B. Microsoft co-founder Paul "Afterburner" Allen held onto 3rd place, his net worth raiding $1B to $22B. Amazon's Jeff "Anusapple" Fists, who saw his fortune expand by more than $3B to $5.1B, was the top gainer on the cuntlapping list. And with a measly $1.4B, Jerry "Motherfucker" Yang of Yahoo! found himself in a smooching 16-way tie for 162nd place."
This is very good news for African Africans - they sure as hell getting poorer at your expense...
The best thing we can do for the economy is cut taxes for the rich while raising taxes for the poor, dont you see? Dont you get it? The best solution for all economic problems is to allow the rich to keep more of their own money. In fact the poor should pay 100% of all taxes since they happen to use all the resources taxes produce anyway, the rich can put their kids in private school and rely on private resources so why should they pay taxes so you can put your kid in school? Why should Bill Gates pay taxes so you can get your medication and go to the hospital?
Taxes == Communism and only the poor are Communists.
If you use Linux, please help development of Autopac
accountable? now that would be 'stuff that matters'.
.compliant. if you think that you are already compliant, & it's somebody else, consider this a chance to rat them out, to gain re-admission to the onLIEn wwwhirled again, (c SourceForgerIE(tm) all rights reserved, you have none).
/.puppets.
.asp on that. when the lights come up, there'll be no going back, & no where to hide.
coming soon to/already on, yOUR desktop/network?:
Due to excessive bad posting from this IP or Subnet, comment posting has temporarily (permanently, if we could figure out how to do it) been disabled. If it's you, consider this a chance to sit in the timeout corner. If it's someone else, this is a chance to hunt them down. If you think this is unfair, we don't care.
alert: you've been lax in yOUR payper liesense 'upgrades', you're out.
alert: there's a rumour that you've been badmouthing/lowrating the corepirate nazis, & the naykid furor of the felonious kingdumb, you're out.
alert: looks like yOUR kids have been listening to music again, you're out.
alert: although you appear to be browsing regularly, you've failed to make a purchase recently, you're out.
consider this a chance to stare at your monitor screen, & plan how you can become
etc... lookout bullow. these foulcurrs haven't a clue yet, as to what J. Public can do, once he's peaced off. they live in a tiny wwworld, consisting of only their owned greed/fear based goals. they should get ready to see the light.
we're building a vessel that floats on almost any suBStance.
as to the newclear power/planet/population rescue initiative:
it's all free (as in survival), & available immediately to you/all of US.
as you can maybe already see, yOUR survival/success is not the least bit dependent on the gadgets/combinations of the greed/fear based corepirate nazis, & their phonIE ?pr? ?firm? buyassed
consult with/trust in yOUR creator. more breathing. vote with yOUR wallet (somtimes that means not buying anything, a notion previously unmentioned buy the greed/fear/war mongers). seek others of non-aggressive/positive behaviours/intentions. stop wasting anything/being frivolous. that's the spirit.
investigate the newclear power plan. J. Public et AL has yet to become involved in open/honest 'net communications/commerce in a meaningful way. that's mostly due to the MiSinformation suppLIEd buy phonIE ?pr? ?firm?/stock markup FraUD execrable, etc...
truth is, there's no better/more affordable/effective way that we know of, for J. to reach other J.'s &/or their respective markets.
the overbullowned greed/fear based phonIE marketeers are self eliminating by their owned greed/fear/ego based evile MiSintentions. they must deny the existence of the power that is dissolving their ability to continue their self-centered evile behaviours.
as the lights continue to come up, you'll see what we mean. meanwhile, there are plenty of challenges, not the least of which is the planet/population rescue (from the corepirate nazi/walking dead contingent) initiative.
EVERYTHING is going to change, despite the lameNT of the evile wons. you can bet your
we weren't planted here to facilitate/perpetuate the excesses of a handful of Godless felons. you already know that? yOUR ONLY purpose here is to help one another. any other pretense is totally false.
pay attention (to yOUR environment, for example). that's quite affordable, & leads to insights on preserving life as it should/could/will be again. everything's ALL about yOUR motives.
that old tune title (hope we don't get 'busted' for using it) "make the world go away", takes on new/varied meaning in these times.
the prevalent notion that 'everything will be taken care of' without yOUR knowledge/participation is insidiously misleading.
in our estimation, the biggest 'threat' against US (aside from continuing to fire b
What, you expect logical and truthful statements from a Howard Dean supporter?!? Come on, now!
Its not about how much labor you do, you dont get paid based on merit, you get paid based on who you know, luck, your last name, what you look like, what gender you are, etc etc.
IF you want a million dollars, have a last name with the name Bush or Kennedy, be a white male, and wait a while. Thats all it really takes.
You dont need intelligence, you'll get accepted into Harvard on name alone, you dont need to be talented, you'll get hired because everyone knows your parents, you might need to work hard but thats it.
For the rest of us, working hard wont get us anywhere but into an early grave, and we dont have any advantages, of course if you are a minority then you might have affirmative action to allow you to compete with the Kennedies and Bush's of the world, for the generic poor white male, you are at the bottom of the barrel, everyone else gets advantages and entitlements but you, everyone else gets a free ride, but you get to work hard and have no advantage.
This is considered fair capitalism.
If you use Linux, please help development of Autopac
All we have to do is wait ! Then, we will all get rich because of trickle down effect. I'm sure I'll be rich by the time I'm confined to the wheel chair.
Go Bush. Go Halliburton. (well, whats the difference?)
karma : former act as leading to inevitable results
And if pursuing your own life means that you happen to get rich in the process, what gives us the right to take it away?
Why are the most ostentatiously rich people in this country rich? Because they took a risk and it paid off. They are rich, not because they get some egregiously large paycheck, but because, over time, the companies that they founded and of which they own a significant portion have done well and appreciated in value.
The post to which you are responding pointed out people like Bill Gates, Larry Ellison and Sam Walton. These are guys who took a fairly small amount of money and turned it into something huge. In some cases, it's a matter of being in the right place at the right time. In others, it's a matter of perserverence and work.
Bear in mind that the billions of dollars of wealth that these people control is not just money sitting around in a big pile. It's money that ends up being invested in other companies, money that pays other people's wages and salaries, money that is paid to the government in taxes, money that is donated to charities. But it is not money that is locked away, unavailable to anyone but some greedy, cold hearted bastard.
You propose an interesting idea that has been tried many times over the past century. Why not limit how much a person can make? Say that there is a cap on salaries for the super-rich. Say, you can't make more than a million bucks a year. But why stop there? Why not put a cap on assets? Say, you can't have more than five million bucks in assets. Or make the number arbitrarily lower. Why not just pay everybody the same? Whether you're a doctor, lawyer, bricklayer, software tycoon or computer programmer, you make the same amount. And you might as well let the government run the whole show, so that we we'll know that the people are being served and nobody is stealing from them. It sounds like a grand idea.
I'm sure that it's probably redundant to point out that there wouldn't be much impetus to pursue a career that required such a huge investment of time and effort (doctor, lawyer, heck, even software programmer) over being, say, a cashier in the government-owned store.
Now, I'm nowhere close to being super rich. Heck, I'm not even micro rich. But I'm also not agitated over the fact that these people are out there because I recognize that in a system such as ours, there will be pockets of concentrated wealth. But, compared nationwide, the wealth of these few ultra-billionaires is a drop in the bucket. Wealth is much less concentrated today than it was, say, 100 years ago, or maybe even 50 years ago. There are a few remarkably rich people in this country, but because of the size of our economy and the success of most Americans, you'll find that there is plenty to go around.
My advice? Quit grousing about the success of others. If money is your goal, pursue it. If you have some other measure of happiness, pursue it with as much gusto as you can muster. But don't use the canard of "the rich man's got me down" to rationalize your inability to achieve your goals. It simply won't wash.
-h-
QUOTE: There's a few odd things those "rich" folks do with money that "poor" folks generally don't. Those silly rich tend to invest in a variety of things. They'll start new businesses, or help fund others. Quite often this invested capital actually creates JOBS.
Oh yes, yes Jobs are being created all over India, please move there, theres sooo many jobs there!
The clever bit here, which is a little known fact around socialist knitting clubs, is that "poor" people don't invest! Been around this here planet all my life, and I have yet to get hired for employment by a poor person. It really is the oddest thing. Seems that someone who isn't capable of making a payroll doesn't hire people. Obviously this must be a civil rights issue.
You have never heard of mutual funds? I guess that shot down your "The poor dont invest" idea. Oh and like I said before, if you dont have a job you arent caring about investments, please move to india and get a job.
Taking your sarcasm into account, let's just go and raise them taxes on all those evil "rich" folks and hand it out to who all them really smart politicians feel are more worthy to have that cash. Business and corporations are evil anyway, so if you close down a few or just bring them to their knees all the better.
Someone has to pay the taxes, why shouldnt the people with most of the money pay most of the taxes?
If you use Linux, please help development of Autopac
If that 1% has 23% of the money why shouldnt that 1% pay 23% of all the taxes?
If they had 99% of all the money the people with 1% of the money should pay 99% of all the taxes? Would this make you happy?
I'll respond for you because I can predict your response.
- by b-baggins (610215) on Friday September 19, @11:52AM (#7003584)
Yes that would make me very happy! I'd keep more of my own money!
Yeah that is what I figured. I'll pay 99% of all the taxes, me and the others who make about 1% of the money, and you'll pay 1% of the taxes and make 99% of the money, this is fair.
If you use Linux, please help development of Autopac
Somewhat related is how amusing it is to hear people talking about "tax cuts for the (rich | poor | etc)," when they're actually talking about "tax cuts for the (high income | low income | etc),"
And consider this: almost without exception the people making these laws and proposing to "make the rich pay thier fair share" are in fact, rich. Hillary Clinton is rich. Ted Kennedy is rich. etc. etc. So, why would rich people support legislation they claim will harm people like them?
There are two reasons I can think of:
1. As you mention, it's really a lie. They aren't really taxing the rich they are taxing high earners. The result of this is that they make it harder to become rich. So, in effect they are protecting their elite little club of rich people, and making common people like them at the same time.
2. What's the only thing better than money (at least to these people)? The answer is power. By using rhetoric like "making the rich pay" they seduce the people to give them power.
So in the end, they have both wealth and power. It's a pretty good scam isn't it.
The government hires employees at a faster rate than the corporate world, and the government hires Americans at a higher rate than big corporations.
If you use Linux, please help development of Autopac