Six of the Top Ten US Billionaires Are Kochs and Waltons

Politics • December 2013 • Views: 1,355

For the first time ever, according to Forbes magazine, the 400 richest Americans have more than $2 trillion in combined wealth. And, a fifth of that amount is held by just 10 individuals. Of those top 10 richest Americans, six hail from two families—the Kochs and the Waltons—who are destroying our economy and corrupting our politics. We all should be outraged.

Arguably, the two most urgent tasks in this country are to transform our economy and to clean up our politics, and these two families stand in the way of both.

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9 comments

missliberties Tue, Dec 3, 2013 9:43:23am

Apparently trickle up policies are working well. For them. The rest of us. Not so much.

Shiplord Kirel Tue, Dec 3, 2013 2:20:11pm

I don’t know how the Waltons in particular sleep at night, wallowing in obscene wealth while tens of thousands of their employees must depend on food stamps and private charity to feed themselves and their families.

False humility is not one of my faults: Thanks to some hard work, good luck, and things like public roads, USGS surveys, and the GI Bill, I am a wealthy person by reasonable standards (though perhaps not those of the GOP). Yet each Walton heir is several thousand times as rich as I am. The employees of my business made too much to qualify for public assistance. This has continued since I sold the business, since I sold it to them.

What is the purpose of this kind of greed?

The Republicans’ own standards don’t even apply, let alone make sense. How does one person with 40 billion dollars “create” more jobs or provide more investment capital than 40,000 people with a million dollars each? They sure don’t buy as many cars, houses, or refrigerators as, say, a million people with another 40 grand each.

What they can buy, that mere single digit millionaires cannot, is major political influence at the national level. Members of Congress, even contemptible tea party pissants, don’t come cheap.

ausador Tue, Dec 3, 2013 3:09:36pm

Ahem…seriously worth the six minutes of your life to watch if you have not already.

Youtube Video

Shiplord Kirel Tue, Dec 3, 2013 3:52:07pm

Remember Bastille Day? A whole political party in this country doesn’t.

PeterWolf Tue, Dec 3, 2013 4:14:17pm

But, but, you invoke something foreign….and worse…..French!

ausador Tue, Dec 3, 2013 4:49:24pm

re: #5 PeterWolf

But, but, you invoke something foreign….and worse…..French!

He is just saying what all of us down here in the “middle class” and lower know. The 1% can only go so far before the people revolt against them. Apparently with their bought and paid for politicians and news broadcasters they consider themselves able to “spin” their way on indefinitely. That is not going to happen.

In terms of wealth inequality they have already far surpassed the days of the robber barons, and what happened then? Anarchist bombings and assassinations, an ascendent communist party here in America, violent labor unrest, sabotage and kidnappings, and the formation of extremely militant unions.

The french only did it a little earlier and far more violently, but the point remains the same. You can only push the “little people” so far before they push back. If you rig the game to the point where there is no hope of betterment, no chance of improvement, only a never ending downward spiral then the population is going to revolt against those in charge.

PeterWolf Tue, Dec 3, 2013 4:55:17pm

Oh, let them eat apple pie.

FemNaziBitch Tue, Dec 3, 2013 10:29:25pm

re: #3 ausador

Ahem…seriously worth the six minutes of your life to watch if you have not already.

[Embedded content]

Yes, I remember that.

The problem is the actual word “distribution”. Wingnuts shut down when they hear that word.

FemNaziBitch Tue, Dec 3, 2013 10:35:28pm

re: #6 ausador

He is just saying what all of us down here in the “middle class” and lower know. The 1% can only go so far before the people revolt against them. Apparently with their bought and paid for politicians and news broadcasters they consider themselves able to “spin” their way on indefinitely. That is not going to happen.

In terms of wealth inequality they have already far surpassed the days of the robber barons, and what happened then? Anarchist bombings and assassinations, an ascendent communist party here in America, violent labor unrest, sabotage and kidnappings, and the formation of extremely militant unions.

The french only did it a little earlier and far more violently, but the point remains the same. You can only push the “little people” so far before they push back. If you rig the game to the point where there is no hope of betterment, no chance of improvement, only a never ending downward spiral then the population is going to revolt against those in charge.

Yes, this.

I guess the answer is for the 1% to keep black men disenfranchised either in jail or with a felony conviction —I’m not being totally sarcastic here.

It won’t work, yet it seems to be the plan.

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