Forbes magazine released its annual list of the 400 richest people in the world, called the Forbes 400. This article includes a link to the 400.
In New York State, Michael Blooomberg is the richest. He is a huge supporter of charter schools, as are many other billionaires.
Lisa Finn of the Patch for the North Fork of Long Island writes:
Overall, the 400 richest billionaires in America are worth $4.5 trillion, tying a record set in 2021. Overall, they are about $500 billion richer than they were a year ago, in large part because of rebounding stock markets and an AI-driven tech boom, Forbes said.
NEW YORK — Billionaire Michael Bloomberg is the wealthiest person in New York, according to The Forbes 400, an annual ranking of America’s super rich released Tuesday.
Billionaires had to have a net worth at least $2.9 billion to be included on the prestigious list, up from $2.7 billion a year ago. Forbes said its net worth calculations use stock prices from Sept. 8.
New York’s former mayor Michael Bloomberg, 81, of Bloomberg LP and the richest person in New York, is worth an estimated $96.3 billion. He is ranked the 10th most wealthy man nationwide.
In April, he was ranked the 7th richest person in the world, according to Forbes.
Inequality may well be at its worst point in our history. A handful of people have as much wealth as the lower 50%. This is unhealthy for our society.
If you want to know more about the consequences of intense inequality, I recommend a book by two British sociologists, Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett, called The Spirit Level: Why Greater Equality Makes Societies Stronger.
Their thesis is that the more equality a society is, the happier it is.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
In other news, rapist, con man, and presidential candidate is said to be the richest man on the toilet in the owner’s suite at Mar-a-lago, which was recently ranked the tackiest residence in the Galaxy after the Trump penthouse in Trump tower on what Trump thinks of as Trump planet.
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Damn it I was hoping I’d make the list this year.
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Yeah, that’s why they excluded teachers. There would be too many people padding the list.
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It is no accident that the Scandinavian countries rank at the top of the happiest nation list. Citizens of these countries have a nationalized health system that they can count on, and they have a more robust social safety net system than the US. Our for profit healthcare network costs a lot more and gets worse results, and medical debt is the leading cause of bankruptcy in the US.https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/06/16/1104679219/medical-bills-debt-investigation
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Exactly right, RT!!!
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But here in the US it’s “he who dies with the most toys wins” and having the $$$ for “champagne dreams and caviar wishes”. Everyone else is just a loser or a wanna-be. Ain’t unfettered Capitalism just wonderful!…..SMH
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I guess I have figured out the point of why individuals have to have so much wealth. The only thing I can think of is the fact the individual has bragging rights to be listed on Forbes or how many yachts, airplanes, humongous houses one needs a map to get around in, etc. they have.
To me it makes not logical sense. My wife and I have been fairly comfortable over the last 56 years. We can remember as kids growing up in a small town in Kansas that our families did not have a lot but we were happy, fed, housed, and clothing on our backs. Over the years together there have been times when we stubbled financially (folks in the military and social workers (my wife) did not make a lot of money) but in the end we have done well. Our three children are doing well and happily married with wonderful children. What more could we want.
I just don’t get it.
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It is not only the extreme wealth of the ultra-wealthy that contributes to inequity; the problem is they use their wealth to rig the politics against working people. Billionaires are leading the charge to undermine public education. They also have an outsized influence on public policy. They hate unions and are against raising the minimum wage. They are behind the mass privatization of everything public. They are working behind the scenes to privatize Medicare and expand social impact investing, and they have friends on The Supreme Court. According to Robert Reich, “Clarence Thomas’s billionaire buddy Harlan Crow has a financial stake in four cases coming before the Supreme Court. One of them could preemptively ban a federal wealth tax. Thomas has not recused himself. “
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This country is seriously messed up. Nobody needs to be so wealthy when people are starving and lining up to get food in food pantries.
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Poverty 4th Leading Cause of Death in U.S. as Calls Grow for Third Reconstruction: Bishop Barber
JUNE 28, 2023
Bishop William Barber, co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign, says it’s “grotesque and immoral” that poverty is the fourth leading cause of death in the United States, higher than homicide and respiratory illness, citing recent findings published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. “Why do we hear so much about crime rates and opioids and gun violence in America, but poverty kills more people than all of those things?” asks Barber. He joins us to talk about the intensifying efforts of the Poor People’s Campaign to end poverty and empower poor and low-wage workers and support “The Third Reconstruction” resolution in Congress. This weekend, the Poor People’s Campaign led a Moral Poverty Action Congress in Washington, D.C., focused on ending poverty in the United States…
https://www.democracynow.org/2023/6/28/the_third_reconstruction
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The problem is that these 400, and about 3 million others (Representing the 1%) don’t care about keeping society happy. Billionaires represent the greatest threat to American prosperity. 3 of these billionaires have wealth equaling the bottom 50% of Americans and 58% of American families cannot afford a $400 emergency. The fact that they are 500 billion wealthier than a year ago means they represent a clear and present danger to the economic well being of the US. Considering that much of the increase in wealth is due to AI shows they intend to take even more from the American workforce.
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Saudi Arabia pulled out of the U.S. led deal to normalize relations with Israel today. That pretty much guarantees a long, terrible mess in the region. Ukraine needs help with the upcoming winter counteroffensive. China currently has little to fear from the U.S. if it invades a neighbor. Warlords on the African continent have little to fear. The U.S. House of Representatives is in disarray without a speaker, frozen, unable to respond to current events, and in danger of yet another government shutdown soon. Heck, we only recently experienced our own armed, domestic insurrection in which the Confederate battle flag entered the Capitol for the first time. The U.S. is not currently powerful enough to ensure tranquility anywhere.
But Wall Street, deregulated, still gathers for a few individuals the wealth and power of kings. These oligarchs use their wealth and power to influence elections because they want MORE, MORE, MORE. They buy Bloomberg News, Twitter, and so on. These media help elect congresspeople who attack the U.S. government from within. They weaken the government. They seek to end democratic rule. In this vicious cycle, with the U.S. hobbled, thousands upon thousands of people all over the world die miserable deaths every day. The lives, liberties, and pursuits of happiness of all people everywhere are compromised. And the situation bodes likely to grow much worse.
The Forbes 400 is a list of four hundred threats to national and global security.
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LCT, that is magnificently said. Exactly right. I am going to quote your entire passage on my social media. Thanks.
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