No more cigars, is that humor? LOL

[SmokinDVM]

barry - I've been researching EVERYWHERE and I just cannot find anything to substantiate your statement. Would you mind quoting sources please???

Funny, I found plenty of information very easily. Oh, I know what your problem is...first you have to look somewhere other than FOX.

Nationwide, billionaires are richer and more numerous for the second year in a row, according to Forbes magazine 2005 survey. The Forbes 400 list of the richest Americans starts at $750 million and 78 percent of them were billionaires in 2004. In the past year, 69 more Americans became billionaires, which gives the country almost half the world's billionaires. In 2004, the combined net worth of the nation's wealthiest was $1 trillion, an increase of $45 billion in one year; they increased their wealth by $300 billion providing truth to the term "the rich get richer."

At the same time, the common working person's dreams of wealth become harder to achieve. Wages for most Americans didn't improve from 1979 to 1998 and the median male wage in 2000 was below the 1979 level despite productivity increases of 44.5 percent. Despite gains made in income during the 1990s, wages are now on a downward spiral. In May, The Financial Times reported that wages are falling faster than at any time in the last 14 years. Meanwhile hidden unemployment soars as U.S. economists declare a "jobless recovery."

Contrary to American beliefs about equality of opportunity, a child’s economic position is heavily influenced by that of his or her parents.
• Forty-two percent of children born to parents in the bottom fifth of the income distribution remain in the bottom, while 39 percent born to parents in the top fifth remain at the top.
• Children of middle-income parents have a near-equal likelihood of ending up in any other quintile, presenting equal promise and peril for those born to middle-class parents.
• The "rags to riches" story is much more common in Hollywood than on Main Street. Only 6 percent of children born to parents with family income at the very bottom move to the very top.

http://www.brookings.edu/papers/2007...ns_isaacs.aspx

[SmokinDVM]

Now I'll "slink" off for awhile before hefty and ash get their panties bunched up any more than they are now.

[cigarsarge]

Now I'll "slink" off for awhile before hefty and ash get their panties bunched up any more than they are now.

Hot damn...Just like old times.

[Baron Porthos]

Maybe I'll give it a ouple of more weeks.

[ggiese]

Funny, I found plenty of information very easily. Oh, I know what your problem is...first you have to look somewhere other than FOX.



http://www.brookings.edu/papers/2007...ns_isaacs.aspx

The Pew Charitable Trust and Julia Isaac's report. That sure would be "plenty" of information...

Yep - your'e right - nothing on Fox...

Of course - Nothing on ABC, CBS...

Oh, Look! Nothing on NBC... Strange...

And - most importantly - nothing on CNN either !!!

...as a matter of fact. Aside from a few NPR stations carrying the info, it was nowhere else. Geez... I wonder why???

[Smoked!]

The Pew Charitable Trust and Julia Isaac's report. That sure would be "plenty" of information...

Yep - your'e right - nothing on Fox...

Of course - Nothing on ABC, CBS...

Oh, Look! Nothing on NBC... Strange...

And - most importantly - nothing on CNN either !!!

...as a matter of fact. Aside from a few NPR stations carrying the info, it was nowhere else. Geez... I wonder why???

Gents,
I like this thread. I have no interest in the politics, but you may find some useful and current information on wealth published by those who deal with the wealthy. I suggest researching such sources as Merrill Lynch/Capgemini annual wealth reports (ML is now under the umbrella of Bank of America), Goldman Sachs wealth management division, and possibly Credit Suisse private banking. For starters, a quick google search returned the following: http://www.ml.com/media/79882.pdf

It is difficult to respond to an assertion that most wealthy individuals have inherited their money without first defining wealth. I know a few self-made millionaires. None inherited a significant sum from his family. Not one considers himself "wealthy."

It seems, too, that we tend to restrict our thinking to the sphere in which we travel; specifically, we think in terms of wealth in North America. A great deal of wealth and riches have been created around the globe due to the commodity boom/bust and very inexpensive credit. Just my 0.02.

[ggiese]

I suspect there was not a LOT of research put into his theory about inherited wealth...

Per Forbes (in its dicussion of the worlds 400 richest people):

Two-thirds of the members of The Forbes 400 have fortunes that are entirely self-made, while only 19% of the group inherited their entire fortunes.

Link to the Forbes article

Which leads me back to the original hypothesis put forward by my grandfather (as salty as he was)...

If you strip the wealthy and distribute it evenly - what it took to be a billioniare does not change. The billionaire will use his business saavy and prowess to again become a billionaire - most likely off of the person who does not possess that same skillset. Contrary to what some like Julia Issacs may say - history has repeatedly taught us - it more truly about passion, and much less about "silver spoons"...