Friday, November 10, 2017

The 1% of the 1%


It is now a big fat myth that the Republicans are the party of the rich.

I read a headline yesterday that said that Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos and Warren Buffet together have as much money (almost $250 billion) as the lowest 1/2 of the U.S. population! To me, this is a surprising statistic  and caused me to go to Google to check out its validity. I asked for the top 10 wealthiest Americans and here is what Forbes magazine indicates who these nabobs are:

#) Name, Wealth, Source of Wealth

1) Bill Gates, $89.0 billion, Microsoft

2) Jeff Bezos, $81.5 billion, Amazon

3) Warren Buffet, $78.0 billion, Berkshire Hathaway

4 ) Mark Zuckerberg, $71.0 billion, Facebook

5) Larry Ellisom, $59.0 billion, Oracle Software

6) Charles Koch, $48.5 billion, Koch Industries

7) David Koch, $48.5 billion, Koch Industries

8) Michael Bloomberg, $46.8 billion, Bloomberg LP

9) Larry Page, $44.6 billion, Google

10) Sergey Brin, $43.4 billion, Google

I'm not sure that these 10 are the 1% of the 1% ... but I bet it's close. Now, here's the test to determine if you will receive an unlimited EBT card and an Obamaphone: What do 8 out of 10 of these billionaires have in common?  Hint: It involves politics ... lefty politics ... moonbat lefty politics ... knee-jerk moonbat lefty politics. Except for the Koch brothers, they're all liberals ... even those older fellows, Bloomberg, Ellison and Buffet.

So you see, faithful readers, that notion that Republicans are the party of the wealthy is just more fake news.

5 comments:

DEN said...

What a crock! This is the most egregious sophistry in the service of a screwy premise. Look at the freaking tax proposal and tell me who benefits? The guys who own companies, family fortunes, hedge funds...
I am amazed that this seems to elude your calculus.

George W. Potts said...

Your logic is rather foggy. When you talk about the owners of companies getting richer under the proposed tax law, are you referring to the ten nabobs I listed?
I actually believe that the big multinationals like GE, Microsoft, Facebook, Google, etc. will end up paying more US taxes at 20% since they pay almost nothing now. It will be the smaller on-shore companies that benefit for the lower rate. These are the ones who create the jobs.

DEN said...

I was pointing out that them that gots is them that gets, and the middle class keeps getting screwed. Tax reform can fix the loopholes that let these corps pay nothing, but why lower the rate when many are awash with profits. BTW, The billionaire lefties on your list have pledged to give away vast portions of their largesse to help cure disease and improve quality of life for others. Your rich guys use their wealth to bribe politicians who will vote them even more wealth. You are on the wrong side.

George W. Potts said...

Let me try to reconstruct you thought process -- It's not OK to set corporate tax rate at 20% because it will just make the execs richer. But it is OK for Democrats to get richer because they ALL have pledged to give away their fortunes to cure AIDS and stop global warning. I think you need to take a refresher course in Corporate Funance and bring some of your natural skepticism to bear when you listen to Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer.

DEN said...

My thought process goes like this: it's not OK to reduce the corporate tax rate, abolish estate tax and AMT, when that adds trillions to the deficit that our grandchildren will be burdened with. Trickle down is a myth and you should know that. None of the guys on your list needs to get richer. Pelosi probably could be indicted for conflict of interest. No one outside of his district pays any attention to Schumer.