OT-America Now Has 482 Billionaires On The Forbes List

In 1982 there were only 13 billionaires in the U.S..In 2007 there were 482 billionaires.Most of the newer members have made their money in hedge funds and private equity.

The 400 richest Americans have an estimated combined wealth of 1.54 trillion dollars.

As they say the the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.I still wouldnt trade places with any of those 482 billionaires.

• Billionaires

My Great Great Grandparents homesteaded and "bought" the land from the government by sweat equity. No cash involved but could lose everything including their lives if they didn't survive the prarie.
My Great Grandparents bought land for 10 dollars per acre and were taking a huge risk.
My Grandparents bought land for 35-50/acre and were told they were nuts.
My parents bought their land for 150/acre and were told they would never make it.
I bought my first land for 325/ac 20+ years ago all the way up to 1200/ac 5 years ago and one banker turned me down while the other shook his head while we signed the papers.
My kids want to start farming and recent land sales are now running 3500/ac.

Which generation do you think bought "cheap" farmland and found it easy to make a living from it?

It's all relative to the value of the dollar.
Eventually we will all be millionaires and we will still not be able to afford anything of extravagance and will struggle to pay the bills.

Our farming ancestors spent 9 dollars to make 10 and the dollar profit paid for living expenses and a few improvements in their lives.
Now we spend 900,000 to make 1,000,000 and 100,000 profit won't improve our standard of living any more than our ancestors did with a dollar. Nothing has really changed except for the amount of money we handle.

I have also thought that the Billionaires who fly in their planes, sail in their boats, drive in their fancy cars, walk on concrete in the big cities, and live in penthouse suites high up in the sky, will never know the riches we have on the farm.

Walking barefoot through a fresh plowed field or a summer storm mud muddle was one of my favorites as a child. Smelling fresh cut alfalfa or the backyard lilacs in bloom rewards me today. My all time favorite is sitting on the porch with mans best friend and watching the sunrise on a warm spring morning without a man made object on the horizon of the dew soaked prarie. Listening to the sounds of the early birds in the trees while the cattle are softly lowing to their newborn calves. Ma cat purrs to a scratch behind the ear as she is feeling lazy after a full night of mice hunting to feed her kittens. The ducks are already making their rounds around the farm and the cottontails are coming out from under the bushes and doing their courtship dances around each other and playfully chasing each other around the yard.

Then the cell phone rings.

I often think our ancestors who lived on the prarie with nearly nothing except their family and their faith, had it made and didn't know it. Being connected to the earth and the earth's creator instead of the www is all I need to be rich in this life.

MAY GOD BLESS THE USA

I have a healthy wife, healthy kids, healthy grand kids, a decent home and a healthy SUPER MTA. Ain't any of them for sale.

Don't need their money, don't want their headaches.

Life is good down on the farm. Enjoy what you have today, for tomorrow it may be gone.

Stockton, CA is the mother of all mothers for the start in 2002 of the greed that spun the sub prime loans. Only about 40 percent into the sub prime loan trick bag. Will run it course in about 10 years. The D word is now following the R word. As long most keep their jobs the R word is nothing to speak about. On the other hand the ones who lose the jobs the R word will drownd a large share.

Jerry

The article linked is the same "Oh, woe is me, somebody else is richer than me" crap that the left is always whining about.

We all are in some sort of labor Union, some are just larger than others with better working conditions!

T_Bone

Who even mentioned labor unions?I've never been a member.

Lots of us middle class people have taken a beating lately on our retirement funds at the places where we work..In the past year a friend has lost $80,000 out of his retirement fund and he was in some pretty conservative stuff.He may now have to postpone retirement and he has cancer!Most wages around here havent gone up in 5 years due to rapidly rising healthcare costs.

The following is a quote out of that article.I assume that it must be pretty factual.

Between 1983 and 2004, the average wealth of the top one 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, 1 out of every 6 households had zero or negative net worth. Nearly 1 out of 3 households had less than $10,000 in net worth, including home equity. That’s before the mortgage crisis hit.

Any comments on this?

Most people (middle class) have it good it is just that the media keeps pitching this idea that if you dont have a new car, giant TV and a big house you are a nobody. It is sad that the Billionaires on the list arent manufacturing tycoons like one of the other fella said.

BUT, since we HAVE to have oil/gasoline, the price goes up and *poof*, profit PERCENTAGE stays the same.

HOWEVER - let's say we use $30/barrel oil and just for numbers sake, take 10%, that'd be saying that Exxon would make $3/barrel of oil used. Now if the price goes to $90/barrel, they won't be happy with making $3/barrel, so take 10% and badda-bing, they make $9/barrel. Go figure, still made 10%, just a lot more money.