[MossadConspiracy]

There was a really cool graphic in a magazine once that portrayed the American population and income levels. Basically they drew the size of people in proportion to their income, marching in a parade. So there was a long column of ant-size people who are the poor welfare recipients, illegal immigrants and so on. Then there was a much longer parade of child and normal size people who are the typical middle class employees that make up the majority of our population. Then a small number of people gradually getting taller and taller, representing the professional classes. Then the giants, people hundreds of feet tall, representing the very highly paid professionals with unique skills, successful business people, professional athletes and entertainers, etc. Finally, there was a shoe that was thousands of feet tall by itself.

In the current world economy, everybody is a worker. A doctor who moonlights for $300/hr or a corporate consultant who makes $5000/hr are workers. That shoe represents the bosses. They are an exceedingly miniscule proportion of the population, much less than 0.01% of Americans

[TrentReznor858]

Originally Posted by afrakabob

why are islamicans so freaking irritable? it's obnoxious. especially when virtually every thread ultimately dissolves into bickering. i wonder if some people here need a bit more real-life social interaction

By that im sure you mean unforced social interation. Going to work, or chatting up the lady at the check out line in the grocery store doesnt count. I've said this for YEARS.

[IbnMardhiyah]

Originally Posted by Salika

when you talked about 95% of people working for the labor and 5% for effort, etc

I should probably replace "poor" with "not rich"... unless I misunderstood

I was referring to the common statement which states that 95% of the people in America control 5% of its wealth, while the remaining 5% of the people control 95% of the money.

Those 95% are not poor - they're mostly middle class and decently or fairly well-off. The remark I made was about those 95% - they are mostly paid for their time, while the remaining 5% are pare paid for their efforts. The difference between the two is shockingly huge, but if you actually see why the difference exists, it doesn't surprise you as much.

People who get paid for their time might get paid anywhere from minimum wage to several hundreds or thousands of dollars per hour, or they are salaried workers. Its all the same; these people are getting paid for their time.

Then there are others who, for the sake of argument, we'll call them brokers. I'm not referring to rel estate agents although technically they would fall into this category. These are the people that work on large projects of all sorts - I can't even begin to describe the two ends of that spectrum. All they do is charge a percentage of the whole of what they deliver or what they manage. For these people, it takes the same amount of time to structure a $1M deal as it does to structure $100M, and they charge a percentage of that. So they get paid for their efforts, and not for their time.

So yes, most people who are slaving away trying to pay off the 1.33 expense-to-income ratio, or paying off their mortgage, or putting food on the table, and trying to get that next promotion, they could make better use of their time, if they knew. It doesn't matter whether these people are labor-class, farmers, engineers, doctors, lawyers, whatever.

Unless of course they really like what they do and have a passion for it and want to leave the status quo as is, [being paid for their time] well fine - no problem, carry on.

Besides, most of the people mentioned in the list in the OP have substantial amount of equity in various companies that the own or control, and the share price directly impacts their personal net worth, which in turn determines their ranking. So if some of the telecom firms that Slim Helu has a stake in all of a sudden lose 10% of their value, his stocks drop in price and his personal net worth drops as well - even though his house[s] and car[s] will have the same market value and the amount of money in his bank account[s] is the same as before.

[Variable]

The US has one of (or the most) disparate wealth distributions of any developed country.

[hijabihoodlum]

mossad, that graphic is awesome.

[Nabisco007]

wow there are a lot of desis on that list! isn't Lakshmi Mittal CEO of Pepsi Co.?? I was reading and article on her the other day.

[IbnMardhiyah]

Originally Posted by Nabisco007

wow there are a lot of desis on that list! isn't Lakshmi Mittal CEO of Pepsi Co.?? I was reading and article on her the other day.

You're probably referring to Indira Nooyi.

Lakshmi Mittal on the other hand, is a man and is not the CEO of PepsiCo.

He was born into a relatively poor family and worked his way up through hard work until he became a rich businessman.

That fact was apparently lost on SaidAbdullahofDarfur while he was ranting and raving against the evil capitalists.

[Nabisco007]

Originally Posted by IbnMardhiyah

You're probably referring to Indira Nooyi.

Lakshmi Mittal on the other hand, is a man and is not the CEO of PepsiCo.

He was born into a relatively poor family and worked his way up through hard work until he became a rich businessman.

That fact was apparently lost on SaidAbdullahofDarfur while he was ranting and raving against the evil capitalists.

ahhh I got it confused. Lakshmi sounds like a girl's name.

[iceonfire]

58 million???? ha i'll gladly offer to be # 3 for that kind of $$$

[TrentReznor858]

Originally Posted by iceonfire

58 million???? ha i'll gladly offer to be # 3 for that kind of $$$

I think anyone would do anything for that kind of money.

[Jamroll]

Originally Posted by Nabisco007

wow there are a lot of desis on that list! isn't Lakshmi Mittal CEO of Pepsi Co.?? I was reading and article on her the other day.

Lakshmi Mittal is the international steel magnate who lives in London. He is the richest man in Europe. Let me tell you though, from my exerience, him and his company got there through shrewd business cunning and sheer hard work. I went for a job interview at their head office in London, when I was only a year or two out of university, and it was quite unlike any other workplace I'd seen. I can't quite describe it, but there was a kind of energy in that place. Everyone seemed extremely hardworking or willing to do whatever it took to get the job done - very dedicated. Also, it was the first workplace I'd come across where you could see turban-wearing Sikhs and hijabis in the higher echelons of the company. I didn't get the job in the end, but I was quite impressed with my short experience of their company.

[Nabisco007]

yea ok the Mittal gave it away..doh! but I Lakshmi is still a girl's name lol One of my cousins is working in London. He's going to join the 300th richest man in the world iA. Well work for him on his hedge fund but still...