Now it takes $1 billion (The Forbes 400)

[MikeNearMcChord]

A nine-figure fortune won't get you much mention these days, at least not on these pages. This year, for the first time, everyone on The Forbes 400 has at least $1 billion. The collective net worth of the nation's wealthiest climbed $120 billion, to $1.25 trillion.

Surging real estate, oil and other asset prices paved the way for 28 new members. Developer John P. Manning used political savvy to build a $1.1 billion fortune, in part by brokering low-income housing projects
-snip-
Also gracing our list for the first time are Lehman Brothers Holdings (LEH, news, msgs) chief Richard Fuld ($1 billion), hedge fund manager David E. Shaw ($1 billion), mutual fund guru Jonathan Lovelace Jr. ($1.1 billion)

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/Forbes/TheForbes400.aspx?GT1=8579

[DaveJ]

1. WTF do they need all that money for???

I want to be superrich probably much more than most people, and am developing plans to accomplish that, BUT even I would place limits on how much I need for myself.

And, has anyone thought about how many of lives are wasted serving these people, building the houses, cars, etc, when our time could be put to better use doing productive things.

[SammyWinstonJack]

3. WTF do they need multiple tax cuts?

[VOX]

2. That's "trickle-down economics"--the obscenely wealthy get wealthier...

And to the freepers who would reflexively shout, "You got something against working hard and making money?"

I would answer, No, I do not. :grr:

But I've got plenty against a system where CEOs pay themselves hundreds of millions per year, and where the wealth is being sucked upward by the already extremely wealthy. Where is all that money coming from?

Could it be coming from the last of the middle-income taxpayers? Could it be from thousands of no-bid government contracts? Or, like one of the billionaires listed, could it be from the poor (brokering low-income housing projects)?

Profiteering of this magnitude is at the heart of decadence and immorality in the country. It wasn't by accident that Jesus said, "A rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven...It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God."