Poverty Sucks...
Posted on 08/22/2009 8:20:51 AM PDT by central_va
The rich have been getting richer for so long that the trend has come to seem almost permanent.
They began to pull away from everyone else in the 1970s. By 2006, income was more concentrated at the top than it had been since the late 1920s. The recent news about resurgent Wall Street pay has seemed to suggest that not even the Great Recession could reverse the rise in income inequality.
But economists say — and data is beginning to show — that a significant change may in fact be under way. The rich, as a group, are no longer getting richer. Over the last two years, they have become poorer. And many may not return to their old levels of wealth and income anytime soon.
(Excerpt) Read more at finance.yahoo.com ...
/johnny
There was a caption on a picture there that said — “John McAfee is auctioning off this property in New Mexico to pay bills. His worth has fallen to about $4 million from a peak of about $100 million.”
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Now... that would be *alarming*...
That’s like saying you have a $250,000 home and the value of your home has now declined to a value of $10,000.... Yikes!
THe co-authors name is "Fabrikant"?. For real? You can't make this stuff up.
I wonder who They define as rich. Some person making $300K a year gross? Or the Super Rich like Oprah and Soros?
The evil effects of socialism are starting to take root in this country.
This is great news. That will teach the rich for making all that money. I won’t feel better about myself until everyone is at my level or below my level in income.
Now all we need to do is figure out who is going to pay those crazy high taxes...it better not be me!
/sarc
Yes and the part about “income inequality”. What the hell is that other than jealosy. If newspaper forgers made a pile of money, they wouldn’t be writing stories like this. As for the rich, they didn’t get that way being stupid. In their bubble of NYC, the rich are getting the hell out. Tired of being taxed to death. See ya. So the libtards that couldn’t figure out a bank statement or a simple balance sheet start screeching about equality of incomes. Nice try you goofballs. What these mental midgets don’t understand is that if the “rich” are all made poor, then the poor will be made poorer. Kind of like when the folks in Watts burned down their neighborhood in the 60’s. Yea that helped the situaiton didn’t it.
You said — This is great news. That will teach the rich for making all that money. I won’t feel better about myself until everyone is at my level or below my level in income.
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Exactly right! It does serve them right... daring to make that kind of money... LOL... The fact that they dared to think they could invest their money in anything is their “just desserts” for doing this kind of idiotic thing... :-)
Over the last several years, Mr. McAfee began to put a large chunk of his fortune into real estate, often in remote locations. He bought the house in New Mexico as a playground for himself and fellow aerotrekkers, people who fly unlicensed, open-cockpit planes. On a 157-acre spread, he built a general store, a 35-seat movie theater and a cafe, and he bought vintage cars for his visitors to use.
He continued to invest in financial markets, sometimes borrowing money to increase the potential returns. He typically chose his investments based on suggestions from his financial advisers. One of their recommendations was to put millions of dollars into bonds tied to Lehman Brothers.
For a while, Mr. McAfee’s good run, like that of many of the American wealthy, seemed to continue. In the wake of the dot-com crash, stocks started rising again, while house prices just continued to rise. Outside’s Go magazine and National Geographic Adventure ran articles on his New Mexico property, leading to him to believe that “this was the hottest property on the planet,” he said.
But then things began to change.
In 2007, Mr. McAfee sold a 10,000-square-foot home in Colorado with a view of Pike’s Peak. He had spent $25 million to buy the property and build the house. He received $5.7 million for it. When Lehman collapsed last fall, its bonds became virtually worthless. Mr. McAfee’s stock investments cost him millions more.
One day, he realized, as he said, “Whoa, my cash is gone.”
His remaining net worth of about $4 million makes him vastly wealthier than most Americans, of course. But he has nonetheless found himself needing cash and desperately trying to reduce his monthly expenses.
He has sold a 10-passenger Cessna jet and now flies coach. This week his oceanfront estate in Hawaii sold for $1.5 million, with only a handful of bidders at the auction. He plans to spend much of his time in Belize, in part because of more favorable taxes there.
Next week, his New Mexico property will be the subject of a no-floor auction, meaning that Mr. McAfee has promised to accept the top bid, no matter how low it is.
“I am trying to face up to the reality here that the auction may bring next to nothing,” he said.
In the past, when his stock investments did poorly, he sold real estate and replenished his cash. This time, that has not been an option.
That’s John McAfee, an entrepreneur who founded the antivirus software company that bears his name... serves him right for trying to make any money... :-)
The article illustrates that the poor are not pulling their own weight. The poor need to work harder.
Yes they do.
Poor people suck.
What a$$es! It will just make the socialist/democrat voters giddy while their corrupt congresscritters and president keep raking in the dough and power.
I don't care how much someone else has, just what I have. oprah having more money than God doesn't make me poorer.
***That’s like saying you have a $250,000 home and the value of your home has now declined to a value of $10,000.... Yikes!***
I knew a person who had $300,000 dollars in ENRON stock. A few months later it was worth to $3,000 dollars.
It just doesn’t pay to be rich does it? LOL...
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[ ... you see..., if you’re rich, you’ll just lose more money... less money to lose if you’re poor! :-) ...]
Poverty Sucks...
Well the only thing I see that could have made that better is that the government never should have let him do that...they should have used their guns to seize that money from him and give it to me in free services. Like a free vintage car cab ride to the airport.
Oh the hummanity of it all!
It does serve him right for making such a crappy, “take over your system” anti-virus software, ;-).
The NYT notes that this rich gentleman is getting out the country (to Belize) to AVOID HIGH TAXES.
Dems fail to grasp how easy it is for folks to go over the border to avoid taxes. Smart governments are setting up ways to attract such people by the tens of thousands.
It will become infinitely harder for the I.R.S. to collect on those who become ex-pats and part-time residents.
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