Edwards doesn't stand to loose much for the simple reason that income and wealth are not the same thing.
See, Edwards has already made the big bucks. He can just dump all that money into things like municiple bonds (tax-exempt!) and live off the interest. Lots of Rich New England Democrats live like that.
They're like the little old ladies living in $500,000 homes in Miami making $30,000/year on $1,000,000 at 3% interest.
They pay almost no taxes, yet are richer than 90% of the rest of us.