maandag 8 juni 2009

Het Neoliberale Geloof 455

How the 10 Richest in the US Made Their Billions

-- Posted By David DeGraw on Monday, June 8th, 2009 at 12:32 pm, Filed under Economy, News . Follow post comments through the RSS 2.0 feed. Click here to comment, or trackback.


By Adam Turl, Socialist Worker

Back in February–when even the mainstream media was convinced the capitalist economy was in full-blown meltdown mode–Newsweek magazine ran an article titled “Why there won’t be a revolution.” Newsweek wanted to reassure the rich–and convince working people–that the masses weren’t getting ready to dust off their pitchforks and head to the town square.

“Americans might get angry sometimes,” they wrote, “but we don’t hate the rich. We prefer to laugh at them.”


Newsweek couldn’t be more wrong. The 10 percent of Americans who rely on food stamps, the 25 percent of Ohioans who are waiting in lines at food banks, the 500,000 people who lost their jobs last month and the millions more who can’t find work–these people aren’t laughing.

And plenty of Americans–rightly–hate the rich. While our homes go into foreclosure, while our credit card rates go up, while our jobs disappear and college tuition shoots up, the well-heeled “masters of the universe” on Wall Street are still making out like bandits, but now with hundreds of billions of dollars in taxpayer money, courtesy of the Obama administration.

A lot more people would be even angrier if the mainstream media reported the truth about the rich and powerful in America–who they are and how they “made it” to the top. Consider the 10 richest people in the country as of last September, according to the annual Forbes magazine list.

Number 10-9

The Koch Brothers

Charles Koch ($19 billion) and David Koch ($19 billion)

Studies show that the most likely job of any child is that of their parents. If your mom or dad is a janitor, you’re more likely to be a janitor than anything else, according to the statistics.

Charles and David Koch are no exception to the rule–only much luckier. Like their father, Fred Koch, they run the largest privately owned energy company in the U.S. Koch Industries–with annual revenues nearing $100 billion–is also one of the biggest polluters in history.

Fred founded Koch Industries in 1940, and during the Second World War, he made a bundle helping the USSR’s ruler Joseph Stalin build up an energy infrastructure in his country. After the war, however, Fred “saw the light” and became one of the founders of the right-wing anti-Communist John Birch Society, which helped whip up a hysteria during the McCarthyite witch-hunts of the 1950s.
Lees verder: http://ampedstatus.com/how-the-10-richest-in-the-us-made-their-billions

1 opmerking:

Anoniem zei

In hetzelfde lijstje Bloomberg, die volgens luchtbelleke Mees een groot hart heeft voor immigranten.


Number 8

Michael Bloomberg

Net worth: $20 billion

Before more or less buying the New York City mayor’s office (so far, he’s spent just under $150 million on his mayoral campaigns), Michael Bloomberg accrued his fortune by wiring the country’s financial system through his software services company. Bloomberg LP’s “Market Master” terminals helped make possible the complex computerized trading that became commonplace before the 2008 financial crash.

But the recession has been good to Bloomberg, too. Since 2007, he went from “only” 147th on the list of richest Americans to eighth place.

Bloomberg tries to present the image of a philanthroper and down-to-earth businessman, but his reign has proved to be a disaster for poor and working-class New Yorkers.

He has given millions of dollars to charities in New York City, but the sum is paltry compared to his overall net worth–and his contributions have also tied up city nonprofits with the political interests of the billionaire mayor. Bloomberg likes to tout the fact that he doesn’t live in Gracie Mansion–the traditional home of New York City mayors–but aside from his apartment in Manhattan, he owns multiple homes in Britain and Bermuda.

As mayor, he’s pushed through massive service cuts and layoffs in New York City (even before the onset of the current crisis), closing down day care centers, health clinics and worse. Now, claiming a $500 million budget shortfall–which he could easily cover himself and still be a multibillionaire–he plans more painful cuts.

In truth, Bloomberg isn’t the mayor of the majority of New Yorkers. He’s the mayor of moneyed Wall Street interests.

anzi

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