Forbes 400 Richest Americans List

"Forbes magazine released its list of the 400 richest Americans Wednesday, and (drum roll, please) the rich have gotten richer. As a group, the 400 saw their net worth rise by about 13 percent to some $1.7 trillion...The Forbes list is rolling out alongside recent news that about 1 in 6 Americans is in poverty, that median incomes fell in 2011, and that unemployment remains higher than 8 percent. It also comes as voters are weighing a presidential contest between a multimillionaire businessman and an incumbent whose economic plan includes raising taxes on the rich...".* The Young Turks host Cenk Uygur breaks it down on The Young Turks.

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[djaceman]

First trillionaire in 10 years time? By the way the world is going, they'd end up being a global dictator.

[A]

I agree with your last post. I've often argued tax rates don't really have nearly as sharp an effect on economies as things like labor productivity, investment rates, per capita income, import-to-export ratio (current account) and the share of the world market or trade from a country. Had Europe not been in as terrible a shape as it was after WWI and WWII the US might have been less economically dominant.

Tax rates usually only have sharp effect if taxes are oppressively high or abysmally low.

[isaacexe]

Man, those are some crazy numbers even with adjusting inflation.

[ImyurZero]

Are those numbers adjusted for inflation?

[dangerouslytalented]

actually, they DO have massive influence over whole rural economies. When the Mothership descends, with everything you need under one roof, none of the smaller shops can compete, and the whole lot will have to close.

[PrincipalSkinner]

The 75 million, and 1.1 billion number is astonishing to say the least.

[blinkku]

0.2 is about 13% increase, paired with an annual inflation rate of 5% they only grew by 8%, which to me is a modest increase of capital for the richest seeing as they have the best investors working on their hedges/briefcases. And comparing the market value of the dollar from like, what, 30 years ago gives a realistic impression indeed.

[thraxman]

Interesting to note the differences between '82 and today. Median household income for the US rose ten percent in the same period as the minimum of Forbes top 400 richest people in the country rose over five hundred percent.
Additionally, in 1982 there were over 650 thousand millionaires living in the US, now there are over 3 million. In 1982 15% of the US population was below the poverty line, in 2010 it was 15.1%.

[TomHendricksMusea]

The paradigm is shifting from conservative versus liberal to corporations versus democracy.

[TheORGANEZIZED]

This is what I got using a different inflation calculator: $222, 023, 284, 974 Annual rate of inflation change: 138.7%

[dangerouslytalented]

They compared the rise in wealth of the top 400 people to the the gain of the bottom. Almost all the gain in wealth in the US for the last 30 years has been by the top 400 people, even accounting for inflation.

[A]

I'm quite sure the deregulation of the financial markets plays a part in why we've been having so many banking crises in the past 20 years or so.

[Lobos]

You have to also adjust the value vs infaltion to show that point.
However that alone wouldnt address the issue of extraction vs population increase and demand.

One could argue that the extraction of gold is stable, but population growth and demand is up which would increase the value regardless of how much the currency in question was worth. Then you have to look as usage. If usage of gold in for example computer parts is up compared to 85 then that would increase demand and price as well.

[kmfdmman]

That's a great question and the first thing I thought of when I saw the numbers. So I checked the DoL inflation calculator and 10m(a flat) is worth little under 24M(23.87) now. I believe that would mean that if translate to somewhere near 180 to 190m, not enough to make the list.

[A]

After all the deductions, tax rebates, tax credits, exemptions, etc. there are for dividends and capital gains many rich people pay much less than 15% taxes on dividends and capital gains.

Given that over 80% of the average rich person's money comes from dividends and capital gains a 10% tax on 80% of their wealth would only be an 8% effective tax. Assuming personal income is 20% of their wealth a 35% tax (assuming no deductions) on it would only be an additional 7% tax for a 15% total tax.

[HeWhoGoesByMazz]

the original phrase "trickle down economics" was actually uttered by Will Rogers in the 1930's. 50 years later it was used again to describe Reagan.

[martinngeka]

so what wld you do next year when the 11k is finished?

[yonkers]

the trend is clear but i would like to see them adjusted with inflation included. i don't think this could happen in a free(ish) market with realistic regulations.

[SuperAtheist]

are those dollar amounts adjusted for inflation, cenk?
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[A]

Or how the corporate tax is applied. As stated in the article I linked it's a tax on the corporate entity, not the members. Corporations don't account profits until dividend payments are subtracted.

Because dividends are a different type of payment doesn't mean they come from a different source than wages/salaries. Dividends and salaries are both a share of profits. It's like saying poisoning a tree would affect lumber from the tree but not paper from it.