Obama '08?

"Wealth distribution" is an oxymoron. There ain't no such animal on this planet.

How much would you have each McG if it was shared out as you say?

The top 50,000 in income make more than the bottom 150,000,000. The vast majority of those in the 50,000 are heirs to fortunes, not the risk takers who initially made fortunes.

Warren Buffett didn't come from wealth but he certainly had connections; his father was in the investment business and was a 4-term Republican Senator.



A truly self-made man by any estimation.



The Waltons of course inherited their family fortune, as you pointed out.



I can't find any conclusive information either way about Bloomberg's early life either way, so there is no reason to assume he is anything but a self-made man.



Charles and David Koch inherited their company, Koch Industries, from their father. If that doesn't count as 'wealth inherited from parents,' I don't know what does.



Son of an orthodontist and a stockbroker. My guess is that he had all the money he needed, including funding from his grandfather to start his business in the first place.



Allen's family was well-off and his father was Director of the library system for UW. Private school all the way.



These two guys are interesting; both came from educated families but not rich ones. Self-made men.



Definitely a self-made man, Adelson came from no real money or education background.



Hard to say.



Made her money working for her father's company, Fidelity investments. Her father is somewhere on this list as well; worth about 11 billion himself.



Self-made man, founded Enterprise rent-a-car and flew fighter planes in WW2.



Inherited her money from her father's newspaper biz fortune.



Son of a Producer in Hollywood, but he was pretty poor at one point of his life and built his own way up from what I can tell.



Well, let's see.

4. Jim Walton
5. S Robson Walton
6. Alice Walton
7. Christy Walton & Family
9. Charles Koch
10. David Koch
17. Abigail Johnson
19. Anne Cox Chambers

8 out of 20 can honestly be said to have inherited their money or a big business from their parents. Most others on the list had parents who were well enough off to ensure them a great education. Very few came from neither money nor educational advantage. I agree that all of these are what you would call 'new money.'

Cycloptichorn

You are a jealous loser.

Some of you are naming a few who are at the top of the list of the wealthy. However, there are, say, 50,000 whose combined wealth far exceeds the combined wealth of those few.

Wrong again Cyclotroll... most is new money earned by hard work.

When history is written 20, 30, 50 years from now... credit for
the fall and failure of this great republic will be given to Obama.

We don't have to wait that long; Bush has already proven that maxim: created failure in all of his eight years in office.

Show us what he did right? You should be able to name eight successes for his eight years in office.

GITMO. His greatest success?

Bush, Bush, Bush...

Obama is the president and his growing list bonehead moves are what will ruin this country.

The senate has spoken, they think GITMO is great and that it should remain open.

CICE FAILS!!!

Report Shows Air Quality Improved During Bush Administration

Show us what O boy has done right so far... I bet you can't name 3 things.

I believe the top three are 1) Iraq war, 2) economic crisis, and 3) Katrina.

Others would include 4) torture, 5) illegal wiretaps, 6) firing of regional judges, 7) lying to the American people and the world, and 8) cutting taxes and increasing the deficit.

Read the entire article by this right wing think tank and the EPA answers -- Bush can't take much of the credit but as a fact: As a governor Bush changed pollution laws for power and oil companies and made Texas the most polluted state in the Union, and placed Los Angeles with Houston as the most smog ridden city in America.

PrezBO did all that?

Amazing

Yeah, isn't it amazing that Obama saved our country in only 100 days in office from a great depression that took GWBush eight years to destroy.

Did you eat a big bag of shrooms this morning???

Remember when you kept saying **** like, "McCain is going to be President"? You're like an anti-oracle. In other words, keep spreading the good news!

Even a clock that has stopped is right twice a day.