Tag Archives: wealth

libertarians-and-stoya:
The top hedge fund guru, Raymond Dalio, the founder of Bridgewater Associates, hauled in $3 billion, which comes to a whopping $1,442,308 an HOUR, (assuming he worked 40 hours a week for 52 weeks.) It would take the typical U.S. family 29.2 YEARS to earn as much as Mr. Dalio earned in one HOUR. How much is $3 billion per year? It’s hard to wrap one’s head around a number as large as a billion. Here’s some context… That’s as much as 60,673 typical U.S. families earn: Just think about that for a moment. One person earns as much as sixty thousand hard working middle class families. That’s enough to hire 85,911 entry level teachers: While we’re laying off teachers right and left to close budgets that were destroyed by the Wall Street crash, Wall Street’s top hedge fund manager earns as much in one year as tens of thousands of entry level teachers who on average earn $34,920 a year. That what we get for failing to rein in Wall Street. That’s enough to hire 17,143 pediatricians: How is it possible for money managers to be as “valuable” as thousands of doctors who protect the heath of our children and earn on average $175,000 a year? That’s enough to wipe out the student loan debts for 120,000 graduates. The average loan burden for graduating students is now $25,000. One year of income from Mr. Dalio could wipe-out the entire average student debt of 120,000 graduates. That’s enough to wipe out the negative equity of 46,153 average homeowners: Today there are approximately, 11.1 million homeowners who owe more on their mortgages than the home is worth. The average negative equity is $65,000. The top hedge fund guru’s yearly income would cover the negative equity of 46,153 of those homes. And the irony is that Wall Street crash is directly responsible for the creation of the housing bubble and the crash of home value. That’s enough to cover the per person average health care costs of 397,984 Americans. America has the most expensive health care system in the world at a per capita cost of $7,538. Yet one hedge fund manager makes enough to cover the health care costs of nearly four hundred thousand Americans.How can that be? That’s more than the Gross Domestic Product of the 5 poorest African nations combined: The following countries have a combined GDP of less than $3 billion as of 2010; Liberia, Seychelles, Guinea-Bissau, Comoros, Sao Tome and Principe. Together these five nations have a population of 6.3 million. One American equals 6.3 million Africans?  That’s enough to feed 62 million hungry school children for a year: Our obscene distribution of income becomes even more obscene when compared to world hunger. What a top hedge fund manager makes in one year could feed 61.9 million school children from all over the world for one year. What he makes in one HOUR is enough to provide a nutritious meal to 29,748 hungry kids every day for one YEAR.
>implying hedging is as easy as teaching >implying people should make more than the value of services rendered Money envy.  Money envy everywhere. I talked to a hedge fund manager once. Shit looks incredibly hard to do.
Haha, ‘assuming he works 40 hrs per week’. That’s a joke, right?The opportunity cost for missing your kids grow up and spending your youth crunching numbers is pretty damn high. Just saying.

A Single Hedge-Fund Hustler Makes More Than 85,000 Teachers: Why Are Our Priorities So Messed Up?

Tagged , , , , , , , , , , ,

dynamicafrica:
The Africanisation of executives has started, English-speaking groups continue in their dominance, as more and more entrepreneurs from the continent invest in some of Africa’s most promising sectors. But while they are yet to launch their own projects, they are acceding key executive positions. “In the mining industry, only very few African entrepreneurs have launched our own companies”, Congolese Kalaa Mpinga, CEO of Mwana Africa laments. “While mineral resource remain the main source of wealth for some countries, there are almost no private African mining companies, except for those in Morocco or South Africa.” His company, Mwana Africa was founded in 2003 makes close to US$41 million from gold and nickel in both southern Africa and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Even though the English-speaking mining sector counts a few large contractors, such as Ghanaian Sam Jonah, the charismatic CEO of Ashanti Goldfields – which merged with Anglo Gold in 2004, or South Africa’s Patrice Motsepe, chairman of African Rainbow Minerals, entrepreneurs of this calibre are rare. But things could change with the Africanisation of industry executives, a movement that was launched in the wake of the South Africa’s Black Economic Empowerment programme that seeks to strengthen the corporate weight of blacks. “I am witnessing more and more Africans getting involved in the management of large-scale projects. It is undeniable that there is a rise in the number of local decision makers”, says Thierry Lauriol, a lawyer in charge of mining related issues at Jeantet. (cont. reading)
This is absolutely phenomenal (minus the affirmative action overtones). More private African firms would really be wonderful to see, given the positive effect homegrown business has on economic development. 

When Africans take control of their mines and future

Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

cheguevaraslovechild:

“In terms of types of financial wealth, the top one percent of households have 38.3% of all privately held stock, 60.6% of financial securities, and 62.4% of business equity. The top 10% have 80% to 90% of stocks, bonds, trust funds, and business equity, and over 75% of non-home real estate. Since financial wealth is what counts as far as the control of income-producing assets, we can say that just 10% of the people own the United States of America.” – Source

I am a little disturbed by a. the fact that there is such blatant stereotyping (racist and sexist) b. that the stats and the cartoon differ (there are 9 people in the picture, unless we count the elephant symbolizing the GOP, which makes using the glutton representative of a little over 10%), c. that the main course and appetizers are excluded from consideration (I understand the pie metaphor, but seriously, this is why America’s fat), and d. that a racist murder (i.e. Che Guevara) is still endeared to people (this is not intended to be a personal attack on the person from whom I am reblogging this; I am just really perplexed by this, especially in this specific case, where this person holds many views fairly consistent with my own).

Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

If the United States government taxed everyone in the country at 100% of their wealth, the government would still need to borrow money from foreign countries to pay interest on the debt.

logicallypositive:

misesman:

evilteabagger:

If you factor in the next decade of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid payments, there isn’t enough money in the world to pay it off.

But we don’t have a spending problem yo!

HEY EVILTEABAGGER YOU’RE DEAD WRONG! THERE’S PLENTY OF MONEY TO GO AROUND! BERNANKE HAS TO JUST PUNCH A FEW NUMBERS INTO A BANK ACCOUNT AND ~*BADA BING BADA BOOM*~ THERE’S YOUR MONEY!!!!

Well, I guess we can’t abolish the Department of Education, now that we know it’s the only thing saving the next generation from teh mathz. I feel bad for taking it for granted all this time…

Tagged , , , , , , , , , ,

How Terrible we are at Math: Facts About the Top 1%

think-progress:

1. The top 1 percent of Americans owns 40 percent of the nation’s wealth

2. The top 1 percent of Americans take home 24 percent of national income

3. The top 1 percent of Americans own half of the country’s stocks, bonds, and mutual funds

4. The top 1 percent of Americans have only 5 percent of the nation’s personal debt

5. The top 1 percent are taking in more of the nation’s income than at any other time since the 1920s

More at ThinkProgress

I want to talk about #4. Why, by any stretch of the imagination, is a post berating the lack of equality in the country, angry about the fact that the top 1% has a disproportionately high percentage of the nation’s personal debt*.

Other than that, I have pretty much no issue with this. We have the richest people in the world and our definition of ‘poverty’ looks like a joke compared with almost any other country in the world (except for maybe Germany or other Western European nations, but their rap implies an envy towards the American dream and the ‘self-made man’… it also unintentionally showcases grammar that outperforms that of most rich Americans’ English).

* 5>1%, just in case that’s unclear for anyone.

Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

*see: not the nanny state.

Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , ,