[ExI] Protected Elites

[BillK]

On 5/15/09, Damien Broderick wrote:
>  When James James Andrew Andrew Rogers was a frequent poster on this list,
> he denied that fervently, offering data suggesting a quite remarkable degree
> of USian turnover in the upper reaches of the plutocracy. At least half the
> billionaires had parents who were poor or middle class, that sort of thing.
> I find it hard to believe, and even if it's true there might be some power
> law that gives those right at the very top of the curve incomparably more
> sway over the nation's/globe's running, and most of those might well be
> multi-generational elites. Data, anyone?
>


This is a reference to the Forbes rich list of 2007.
They found 946 billionaires, of which 60% made their own fortunes.
Two-thirds of the 2006 list got even richer in 2007.

Some people see this as a growing demonstration of the growing gap
between a few very rich people accumulating ever greater wealth and
the great majority getting poorer. (Regardless of whether the rich
inherited their wealth or gained it through business means).


BillK