I had dinner with my cousin last night. Her husband works for Gulfstream in Savannah. They build G-650s there, which start at $65mil. If one were to order one today it would take at least 3 years to get it. He says there are people who pull out their checkbook to try to buy out someone further up the queue. These are likely rich folks or corporations.
So Gulfstream have 5 or 6 factories around the country, all working flat out to build various aircraft. That $65mil and whatever the others cost employs thousands of people, supports various other industries, keeps the economies of their home communities going, and must add at least that value to their buyers in some ways. Oh, and to run one costs a fair amount of the purchase price each year, requires many pilots, hangars, fuel, maintenance etc etc which also keeps the economy going. And apparently did quite well even over the past few years. So, seems to me like rich folks and corporations have positive effects as well, whatever vilification the various politicos want to heap on them. Hell, I'd like to buy a G-650 and trod down all y'all. --R (sent from my miniPad) On Jan 26, 2014, at 6:27 PM, "Scott Ritchey" <ritche...@nc.rr.com> wrote: Here's a thought: Has the billionaire's wealth impoverished us (normal folks) in any way? It's a mixed bag. Certainly the banking clowns that walked away with the real estate bubble money plus the bailout money made us all poorer. But other billionaires like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, Sam Walton, and MANY others have made most of us richer, or at least enriched our lives. It doesn't have to be a zero-sum game. The invisible hand does as good a job sorting this out as much as the government (picking winners and losers) does a bad job. Besides, look at how these very rich use their wealth. Certainly some are frivolous but there are also the Carnegies, Dukes, etc. who feel a high calling to use their enormous wealth for the common good. Sure, there are a few very rich people in the world, but why is that a problem? _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
