Billionaire club membership jumps

[ComradeR]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6432941.stm
This is disgusting, the rich are getting richer while the working class is struggling more and more just to get by.


More people are better off on this Earth than ever before," Mr Forbes said
<_<

[RedAnarchist]

Originally posted by [email protected] 09, 2007 10:27 am

More people are better off on this Earth than ever before," Mr Forbes said

Does this guy seriously think that? Has he actually any idea of the scale of poverty and inequity that exists not only in Africa and Asia, but in almost every single country in the world?

And as for these billionaires, I bet most, if not all, of the workers who helped them "earn" their obscene wealth have nowhere near as much as them.

[Ihavenoidea]

Originally posted by [email protected] 09, 2007 10:27 am
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6432941.stm
This is disgusting, the rich are getting richer while the working class is struggling more and more just to get by.


More people are better off on this Earth than ever before," Mr Forbes said
<_<
That is fucking disgusting. damn it&#33;

"In the last five years... despite all the turmoil in the world, all the conflict in the world, the global economy in real terms expanded over 25%,"

Yeah and I am almost positive that the termoil in the world and the increasing wealth in cirtain industries is connected.. There is no way it cant be.

There will always be poorer people in a capitalistic society because there would be no rich unless there were poor. the more that are rich, the more that are poor. The rich&#39;s money always comes from the poor. It is like they are vampires sucking the money and life from the working class.

Capitslism sucks. :hammer:

[Wanted Man]

Funny, billionaire clubs are indeed growing. As are so-called "food banks" here in Groningen, because many workers and unemployed don&#39;t even have enough money to afford their own food.

[RebelDog]

Utterly sickening. These fuckers are ruling the earth and hoarding resources that millions of people could live on.

We have 54 of the bastards in the UK and on their combined wealth of £126billion their paid a pathetic, sickening £15million in income tax. (See my previous thread) http://www.revleft.com/index.php?showtopic=63506
Thats an average of a 0.14% income tax rate. The lowest rate for the working class is 22% and if you don&#39;t pay it you will be prosecuted and likely end up in jail.

This week in the UK New Labour put its foot on the class-war accelerator. UK home secretary John Reid (a former communist) announced he is launching a &#39;clampdown&#39; on illegal immigrants who come to the UK and &#39;steal&#39; our benefits and public services.
Tony Blair attacked single parents suggesting that they return to work when their child is 12 and not 16. The minimum wage rose by a insulting 17pence.
All these attacks on the poorest and most vulnerable in society while the billionaire elite are robbing the UK of tens of billions of pounds of tax revenue. There were of course no New Labour attacks on the ultra-rich scum who pay for nothing and steal all the time.

It seems to me that the strongest in society and their government managers are waging class war at a new level of ruthlessness. The richest are squeezing the poorest harder than ever and the working class fightback has been delayed too long.
946 people on this planet have £1.82 trillion whilst billions live hand to mouth on a dollar a day and 30-40 thousand die each day for the want of a meal. That is trademark of a sick, rotten, backward system that is out of control.

[A.J.]

Originally posted by [email protected] 09, 2007 10:27 am
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6432941.stm
This is disgusting, the rich are getting richer while the working class is struggling more and more just to get by.


More people are better off on this Earth than ever before," Mr Forbes said
<_<
Perhaps not relevant at all but I&#39;m distantly related to the founder of Forbes magazine, Bertie Forbes.

Interestingly or not :rolleyes:

[redcannon]

"In the last five years... despite all the turmoil in the world, all the conflict in the world, the global economy in real terms expanded over 25%," said Steve Forbes, the magazine&#39;s editor-in-chief.

cappies love these figures. after they&#39;ve invaded a country, they say "hey, voices of dissent, look at how much more money this country has now". too bad all of the money is in the hands of a few people.

how could that dumbass say that anyway when his article is about how there has been a 35% increase in wealth for the TOP 1,000 BILLIONAIRES, in the world? :huh:

[Global_Justice]

Originally posted by A.J.+March 09, 2007 04:06 pm--> (A.J. @ March 09, 2007 04:06 pm)
[email protected] 09, 2007 10:27 am
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6432941.stm
This is disgusting, the rich are getting richer while the working class is struggling more and more just to get by.


More people are better off on this Earth than ever before," Mr Forbes said
<_<
Perhaps not relevant at all but I&#39;m distantly related to the founder of Forbes magazine, Bertie Forbes.

Interestingly or not :rolleyes: [/b]
at the next family gathering please smash a brick in his face for me

[welshred]

Originally posted by [email protected] 09, 2007 10:27 am



More people are better off on this Earth than ever before," Mr Forbes said

Yea, but only the rich.

[Kia]

combine the articles statement that "A record 946 billionaires - worth a total of &#036;3.5 trillion (£1.82 trillion) - now exist, up from 793 last year." with the fact that "The richest 2% of adults in the world own more than half of all householdwealth."(Source) (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6211250.stm)
,and to be in the top 2% you need a million dollars in assets...shows how insane and unfucking believably unfair the distribution of wealth throughout the world is. There is no justification for o.oooooo1% (946/6,525,170,264) of the world population controlling enough money that if it was to be redistributed equally among ever person in the world...everyone would get 5363&#036; (3,500,000,000,000/6,525,170,264)..........For many people throughout the world this is more money then they see in a year(s) worth of work.

just sickening....

[Janus]

As the economies of China, India, and the other growing economic boomers develop, we&#39;re going to see greater equity within the global corporational playing field in which the Chinese, Indian, and Russian bourgeois will become more influential, interactive, and actually begin to compete more with the older, traditional bourgeois thus promoting the market forces that drive globalization.

[Red Tung]

People, you seem to be missing the point. The only reason billionaires are rich is because the system still works in that it still has confidence in viewing money as a storehouse of value. Wait for the collapse of the monetary system and all bets are off.

If poor people can&#39;t afford to pay for anything with their wages (or lack of wages) because the super "rich" don&#39;t find it a profitable enterprise to engage in real material production then the money the rich hold would be only as "valuable" as anybody pretend it to be like an antique furniture or an old art painting, since it would be entirely divorced from what most ordinary people would find valuable which has more to do with utilitarian value.

This is already happening right now in the world economy, less money is invested into projects which create real material wealth that is sold to consumers because the mass of workers/consumers are simply too poor for the rich to be bothered with (since it is the rich that underpays them relative to their rich selves) so more money on spent on speculation and commodity betting games. Look it up if you don&#39;t believe me. The most profitable businesses are no longer in anything remotely related to production, but in finance, "defence", risk management and entertainment.

[Tekun]

Originally posted by TAKN+March 09, 2007 01:09 pm--> (TAKN &#064; March 09, 2007 01:09 pm)
[email protected] 09, 2007 10:27 am

More people are better off on this Earth than ever before," Mr Forbes said

Does this guy seriously think that? Has he actually any idea of the scale of poverty and inequity that exists not only in Africa and Asia, but in almost every single country in the world?
[/b]
I think that this fuckin Mr Forbes is comparing living standards from 100CE to living standards now, which I agree, are better and improving
:rolleyes:

What&#39;s notable about this less than 1% of the world&#39;s population i.e. billionaires, is that they own almost 85% of the world&#39;s wealth
No wonder most of the world is living in poverty, these pricks own almost everything

[welshred]

1% of the population of 85% of the wealth, thats insane. Well we have capitalism to thank for that unfairness&#33;

[RebelDog]

What&#39;s notable about this less than 1% of the world&#39;s population i.e. billionaires, is that they own almost 85% of the world&#39;s wealth

Can you provide links to verify this? Its just that there many claims on this. I found one from the UN that says it 1% owning 40%:

http://money.guardian.co.uk/news_/story/0,,1965033,00.html

[Karl Marx's Camel]

These fuckers are ruling the earth and hoarding resources that millions of people could live on.


Well put.

[Inithias]

and why are so much ppl against communism and for capitalism ?
does the article not say enough to make ppl think about how fcking bad capitalism actually is ?

i don&#39;t get those ppl...

[Comrade_Scott]

Originally posted by A.J.+March 09, 2007 10:06 am--> (A.J. @ March 09, 2007 10:06 am)
[email protected] 09, 2007 10:27 am
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6432941.stm
This is disgusting, the rich are getting richer while the working class is struggling more and more just to get by.


More people are better off on this Earth than ever before," Mr Forbes said
<_<
Perhaps not relevant at all but I&#39;m distantly related to the founder of Forbes magazine, Bertie Forbes.

Interestingly or not :rolleyes: [/b]
how bout giving me a little something something :lol: but seriously its sad that this is the world we live in. while the rich get richer the people they make there fortunes off of suffer and get poorer. sad sad piss fucking sad world it must stop

[Inithias]

don&#39;t those rich mofos have a conscience .. ? :x

[Janus]

Some do which explains a lot of the philanthropy work but beneath those veneers are skilled, calculating machines who are working in their own class interests and benefitting from it. However, this wealth inequity is simply part of capitalism and one of the reasons why it will fail.


1% of the population of 85% of the wealth
I believe those figures should be the richest 10% owning 85% of the world&#39;s wealth. The top 1% own around half of that though.

[RNK]

I particularly enjoyed FOX News&#39; take on this new Forbes article. I can&#39;t find it, but in it the author attempted to claim that becoming a billionaire was not a matter of winning the lottery, but rather was due to working "your butt off". Which was completely contradictory, as at the beginning of the article he admitted "not everybody can be a billionaire". I politely emailed him and told him he&#39;s a fucking moron, and that for every billionaire there are a million people who work hard and end up with absolutely nothing.

I think that everyone who is worth more than a million dollars, except of course for lottery winners, should be jailed. And eveyone worth more than a billion should simply be shot.

Also, this article corresponds to a study released recently here in Canada. Although it only covers Canada, I assume that the rest of the western world isn&#39;t too different. Anyway, the study found several rather depressing facts. First, Canadian workers have been putting in roughly 200 more hours per year than in 1996. Secondly, it showed that the gap between rich and poor has been widening, with the top 10% making roughly 82 times what the bottom 10% make. Lastly, it showed that the top 10% are the only ones that haven&#39;t been working more, despite the fact that their incomes are increasing.

I&#39;m completely perplexed. I assume most if not all westerners know this. And it completely infuriates me. But why is there such a lack of support from the general population for changing the system? Most people will complain that it isn&#39;t very fair but when offered the oppurtunity to change it they decline.

[Inithias]

Most people will complain that it isn&#39;t very fair but when offered the oppurtunity to change it they decline.

you can assume that they&#39;re just blind sheep going nowhere...

[Janus]

This Mexican billionaire topped the list as third and defintely doesn&#39;t have any compassionate sentiments.

Stereotypical bourgeois (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/mexico_third_richest_man;_ylt=Arx1QDmpVpm2hooK5Ek9 aOVvaA8F)

[Brekisonphilous]

Originally posted by [email protected] 10, 2007 08:44 pm
and why are so much ppl against communism and for capitalism ?
does the article not say enough to make ppl think about how fcking bad capitalism actually is ?

i don&#39;t get those ppl...
Recently in my sociology class, the teacher did a demonstration on how unequally the world&#39;s wealth is distributed. The way she did this was divided the class into groups of classes which were proportional to social stratification. 1 person as the upper-upper class, which she said numerous times "it is actually less than 1%, more like 1/6th of 1%" (ironically enough, I was that one person and got to demonstrate to the class just how beautiful wealth redistribution can be :lol: ). In addition to the upper upper class, there was upper middle, middle, working class, working poor, and under class.

She proceeded to pass out bags of the candies "smarties" in order to represent the portion of wealth that a class owns.
After every class had their bags, I heard kids remarking that the less off classes were "the losers, because they suck"

Despite my teacher&#39;s beautiful demonstration on how unfortunate current wealth distribution is (She glorifies marxism ideology often in class which I find impressive, and seems to actively try to make students more class conscious), some kids just didn&#39;t seem to get it, but the marjority of my peers were shocked at how unfair the situation is.

With my huge bag of smarties representing the 1% of the upper upper class, she told us we could do what we wanted with the smarties and I excitedly asked her if it was ok for me to redistribute my wealth to everyone else and she encouraged the class to do the same if they felt the need.

[Fawkes]

Originally posted by [email protected] 10, 2007 03:44 pm
and why are so much ppl against communism and for capitalism ?
does the article not say enough to make ppl think about how fcking bad capitalism actually is ?

i don&#39;t get those ppl...
So many people are against communism because of the great job that the U.S. and many other countries did at villifying it during the &#39;20s-&#39;90s. With things such as the Hollywood Ten and Senator McCarthy, it&#39;s no wonder that so many people are scared of communism. Not to mention the fact that the USSR had nukes and we were made to believe that they&#39;d launch them at any time.

Anyway, I don&#39;t really have much to say about this article that hasn&#39;t already been said.

[Inithias]

meh, dumbasses ^^

[sexyguy]

"Wait for the collapse of the monetary system and all bets are off. "

Good stuff Red Tung. Can we have more please?

[red team]

As requested by sexyguy:

Since I&#39;ve taken off my jester mask for now, you can see my altered ego :lol:

Why bother with roads and bridges (http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/mar2005/forb-m22.shtml) when you travel by private helicopter?

Have a bad liver from drinking too much Cognac? No problem, just pop in to China and visit Organbay (http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/dec2006/chin-d29.shtml)

Why bother with railways (http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/nov2006/csx-n29.shtml) when most of your money comes from traders sitting in an air-conditioned office and playing the stock market?

Why should you come up with innovative technologies (http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/nov2006/ecar-n25.shtml) when it will cut into your gravy train of guaranteed oil profits?

Last but not least “A nine-figure fortune won’t get you much mention these days” (http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/oct2006/forb-o16.shtml) because:

"In the entire Forbes 400 list, only 19 members are to be found in the category of “manufacturing.” The richest of these—Eli Broad, who with &#036;5.8 billion is number 42 on the list—in fact earned his fortune in real estate development and life insurance."

"Seven billionaires are located in Forbes’ “agricultural” category, but six of these seven are members of the MacMillan family—inheritors of the Cargill agricultural processing empire, which dates to the nineteenth century."

"Meanwhile, 52 billionaires fall in the category of “finance,” and 46 more owe their financial empires to “investments.” Among the latter group is America’s second wealthiest man, Warren Buffett, whose net worth is estimated at &#036;46 billion. Thirty-three oligarchs acquired their wealth from real estate, one of the most rapid growing categories according to Forbes. “Entertainment” has also made 33 Americans billionaires."

"“Retailing” accounts for 19, 8 of whom have collectively gained more than &#036;80 billion in wealth from Wal-Mart—including five members of one family, the Waltons. The vague “service” group includes 42 billionaire members who have profited from such shady-sounding ventures as “outsourcing” and “lawsuits.” Five are to be found in the “gambling/leisure” category, among them America’s third wealthiest man, Stephen Adelson, whose casino-derived wealth is valued at &#036;20.5 billion."

"Thirty-four individuals owe their billions to “technology” according to Forbes. Sergey Brin and Larry Page each have over &#036;14 billion for the development of Google. Pierre Omidyar is valued at &#036;7.7 billion for his ownership of E-Bay. David Filo of Yahoo&#33; stands further down, at &#036;2.5 billion. These moguls of the computer world either made their fortunes in the Clinton years during the wild overcapitalization of the “dot com” bubble, or through the monopolization of computer technology and services, or both."

"In short, the Forbes 400 list paints a portrait not only of staggering wealth, but of wealth derived from financial wheeling and dealing, rampant speculation, highly overcapitalized computer ventures, and oil."

[Inithias]

Have a bad liver from drinking too much Cognac? No problem, just pop in to China and visit Organbay


with tha private helicopter ? =D