How rich is rich?
By Victor Perlo
Forbes magazine recently published a list of the 400 richest Americans, headed, of
course, by Bill Gates of Microsoft, with a net worth of $85 billion.
The list has several interesting features.
The increase in the wealth of the richest Americans, which went up from $125 billion
in 1984 to $1 trillion (1,000 billion) in 1999 - eight times more.
Yes, a small part of that can be ascribed to the rise in prices that has taken place,
but even adjusting for that, the gain was five times in the 15 years.
Meanwhile, what happened to the real income of workers, whose labor provided that
bonanza to the rich? Zilch!
The official data of real hourly earnings show no significant change over the 15
years. The big drop in real hourly earning occurred during the decade after 1973, the
peak year of real hourly earnings.
The recent "rejiggering" of the consumer price index, under pressure from Greenspan
and others, has made the decline in real wages appear less sharp - but that is
illusion.
The rate of increase in the wealth of the 400 has accelerated. During the last three
years alone - 1996-1999 - their wealth rose from $548 billion to $1 trillion, a
compound rate of 22.2 percent per year, compared with the 14.9 percent per year of the
entire 15 year period.
Two-thirds of the 400 are billionaires, and even among these moguls there is a wide
variation in the rate of accumulation of wealth. The worth of the richest, Gates,
escalated 360 percent, whereas that of the lowest-listed of the 400 went up "only" 20
percent, from $520 million to $625 million.
But the growth rate of Gates' income was nearly matched by those just below him on the
list.
The "old money" families are all represented, including Wrigley, Rockefeller, DuPont
and Mellon. Mellon heir Richard Mellon Scaife is prominent in ultra-right politics. Of
course, most of them support and finance right-wing forces in politics.
Needless to say, there are no workers on the list. Nor are the 400 representative of
the ethnic diversity among the American people. There is a handful of women and at
least one Black - Oprah Winfrey, the TV star.
Judging by name - recognizably not a wholly reliable indicator - there are a few
apparently of Jewish origin and no Latinos, although two Cuban émigrés are among those
who narrowly missed inclusion on the list.
Histories of the originators of the "great American fortunes" show them as
unscrupulous pirates in relation to business rivals and the U.S. government, as well
as to employees and workers.
The present generation of billionaire heirs gets considerable publicity for donations
to charities, their support of environmental and conservation societies and financial
bequests to "culture."
But there is little recognition of the fact that they are the decisive force behind
the global aggressions of U.S. imperialism, the anti-labor practices and politics and
the intensified racism polluting our lives
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