# The top 1% - the World over... **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 6, 2010, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-top-1-the-world-over/545680 "2010-07-06T05:16:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![Doughbag](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Doughbag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doughbag)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2010, 10:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-top-1-the-world-over/545680/141 "2010-07-09T10:17:45Z")
> [@gonzomax](#): > > With 300 million people occasionally it does happen. it will not happen to you though. That’s why I’m in Ireland… only 4 million people here, so my chances should be much much better…statisticly anyhow… And since its not America, there is NO corruption or ressesion going on, since all these rich US bastards are in the US and not here. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2010, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-top-1-the-world-over/545680/142 "2010-07-09T12:10:15Z")
> [@ivan\_astikov](#): > > The point I’m slowly getting around to making, is that “the general public” know more about the lives of some talentless soap-star than they know about the average billionaire. I don’t give a shit if they are modest and humble and want to stay out of the limelight… I want to be able to find out what they are up to with a few taps on my keyboard. Why don’t you tap out “Forbes + billionares” into Google and hit “enter”, dumbass? They have a pretty comprehensive list. Interestingly, of the top ten billionares, most are self made from companies they founded. > [@Doughbag](#): > > That’s why I’m in Ireland… only 4 million people here, so my chances should be much much better…statisticly anyhow… > > And since its not America, there is NO corruption or ressesion going on, since all these rich US bastards are in the US and not here. “An American looks at the big gated mansion and says ‘some day, I’m going to have a house like that!’ An Irishman looks at the same house and says ‘some day, I’m going to get that guy!’” -Bono ---
**Author:** ![ivan\_astikov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/58f4c7/32.png) [@ivan\_astikov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivan_astikov)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2010, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-top-1-the-world-over/545680/143 "2010-07-09T12:27:08Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > Why don’t you tap out “Forbes + billionares” into Google and hit “enter”, dumbass? They have a pretty comprehensive list. That “comprehensive list” doesn’t even mention the Rockefellers or the Rothschilds in the top 100. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m sure there are wealthy people who discourage the likes of Forbes from nosing around their affairs. > [@msmith537](#): > > “An American looks at the big gated mansion and says ‘some day, I’m going to have a house like that!’ An Irishman looks at the same house and says ‘some day, I’m going to get that guy!’” > -Bono No, that’s only if you live in the house, Bono. You twat. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2010, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-top-1-the-world-over/545680/144 "2010-07-09T12:41:09Z")
> [@adhay](#): > > Anyone who thinks that there is an national electoral solution to inequity has his head up his ass. I don’t want a national electoral solution to inequity. I _ **like** _ my inequity. Top 1% and all that. Sure, I’m somewhat worried about folks who are richer than I am trying to get yet richer at my expense; that’s a valid concern. But I’m _ **also** _ somewhat worried about folks who are poorer than I am trying to get richer at my expense; that’s also a valid concern. From my perspective, the Right Hand often Giveth and the Left Hand is what Taketh Away. > [@](#): > > But to appease you latecomers, SS must be whittled away. Hey, if they cut me off today, I’d be under a bridge with most of you tomorrow Yeah, that’s – no. I won’t be under a bridge without social security; I never expected to get a dime of it back; the Left Hand keeps Taking it away from me, but that doesn’t mean I’ve ever counted on seeing any personal benefit from it. I still do okay, though, even after factoring in what the Left Taketh from my earnings. > [@](#): > > That’s the plan here. Arbitrarily and without public consent, start increasing the retirement age and then get folks talking about raising the working man’s compulsory annual income cap for his buyin to “social security”. > > Ring any bells, frogs and pigs? Not really, no; I never figured _ **any** _ amount of income would be relevant to whether I could buy in and get dime one of that money back. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2010, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-top-1-the-world-over/545680/145 "2010-07-09T14:54:01Z")
> [@ivan\_astikov](#): > > That “comprehensive list” doesn’t even mention the Rockefellers or the Rothschilds in the top 100. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m sure there are wealthy people who discourage the likes of Forbes from nosing around their affairs.. The bulk of the Rockefeller fortune is tied up in a family trust (established in 1934), so it’s hard to attribute the $$ to any one person. There are about 150 blood relation decendants. At the high end estimate of a family net worth of 100 Billion dollars, that would make each Rockefeller worth about 660 million. Nothing to sneeze at, but this is why a Rockefeller does not make the top 100 in the list. I suggest you look at actual facts **ivan astikov** , because when you fail to do so,you show yourself in a very poor light. The Rockefeller Family is noted for their philanthropy; > [@](#): > > there are over 72 major institutions that the family has created and/or endowed up to the present day. Historically, the major focus of their benefactions have been in the educational, health and conservation areas. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2010, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-top-1-the-world-over/545680/146 "2010-07-09T15:24:32Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > The Rockefeller Family is noted for their philanthropy; And for founding Standard Oil, one of the world’s first and largest multinational corporations back in 1870. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2010, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-top-1-the-world-over/545680/147 "2010-07-09T15:43:17Z")
Right, but according to Adhay, Rockefeller tricked them into passing the Sherman anti-trust act so he could bust up Standard Oil into pieces and make more money. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2010, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-top-1-the-world-over/545680/148 "2010-07-09T15:45:53Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > And for founding Standard Oil, one of the world’s first and largest multinational corporations back in 1870. Indeed. I’m not trying to be an apologist for the super-rich. I’m just trying to inject some factual information into the discussion. For example, a person in the top 1% of net worth may in fact have just under 1 million dollars net worth. The vast majority of the world’s population is very, very poor. Every single one of us on these boards is incredibly fortunate. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2010, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-top-1-the-world-over/545680/149 "2010-07-09T16:46:24Z")
If only we could live in a happy, rich world with none of those annoying happy rich people in it. ---
**Author:** ![ivan\_astikov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/58f4c7/32.png) [@ivan\_astikov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivan_astikov)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2010, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-top-1-the-world-over/545680/150 "2010-07-09T17:05:30Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > The bulk of the Rockefeller fortune is tied up in a family trust (established in 1934), so it’s hard to attribute the $$ to any one person. That’s exactly how I’d expect a crafty billionaire to behave. Spread it around among people you can trust to continue lining your pockets, or failing that, use your money to make sure nobody double-crosses you, albeit several proxies removed from your involvement. ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2010, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-top-1-the-world-over/545680/151 "2010-07-09T17:35:32Z")
> [@ivan\_astikov](#): > > That’s exactly how I’d expect a crafty billionaire to behave. Spread it around among people you can trust to continue lining your pockets, or failing that, use your money to make sure nobody double-crosses you, albeit several proxies removed from your involvement. Oh, I get it now. Look, if you’re going to troll and fuck with the message board you should be careful to stay just a bit inside the believability line. It’s one thing to pretend to be an idiot or to string together bizarrely contradictory and outlandish “positions.” People might believe you either really are that thick, just some teen who hasn’t really thought through what he’s typing, or clinically diagnosed with something that puts you out of phase with the rest of us. But if you’re going to sashay into incoherence and spout little phrases loosely tied to what you’re responding to, you kind of break the illusion that you might be anything but a troll putting people on. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2010, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-top-1-the-world-over/545680/152 "2010-07-09T17:44:03Z")
Who’s the crafty billionaire? The Rockefeller money used to be controlled by that crafty billionaire, but he died and that money was inherited by a lot of different people, many of whom also died and their money was inherited by still more different people. So while the whole Rockefeller fortune is pretty big, it isn’t owned or controlled by one guy. If we’re going to posit shadowy Illuminati who secretly control vast fortunes, then we can posit anything and anyone. If he can control billions of dollars without officially owning anything, then his power isn’t based on money at all. He doesn’t run the world because he has billions of dollars, he runs the world because when he calls up Bill Gates and tells him to imbed security flaws into Windows 7, Bill Gates says, “Yes Sir”. ---
**Author:** ![ivan\_astikov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/58f4c7/32.png) [@ivan\_astikov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivan_astikov)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2010, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-top-1-the-world-over/545680/153 "2010-07-09T18:08:56Z")
**@ Rhythmdvl** — Who would you accept as an authority on the machinations of a suspected “shadow government”? Have you ever seen [The Secret Government: The Constitution in Crisis, by Bill Moyers](http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6402347900887643799#docid=3505348655137118430)? Here’s an outline of its subject matter, in case you hadn’t guessed. > [@](#): > > This is the full length 90 min. version of Bill Moyer’s 1987 scathing critique of the criminal subterfuge carried out by the Executive Branch of the United States Government to carry out operations which are clearly contrary to the wishes and values of the American people. The ability to exercise this power with impunity is facilitated by the National Security Act of 1947. The thrust of the exposé is the Iran-Contra arms and drug-running operations which flooded the streets of our nation with crack cocaine. **The significance of the documentary is probably greater today in 2007 than it was when it was made**. my bolding. And no less so now. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2010, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-top-1-the-world-over/545680/154 "2010-07-09T18:31:13Z")
Wait, wait…let me guess…we’re not allowed to comment on or criticize the movie unless we’ve sat through the entire 90 minutes, am I right? ---
**Author:** ![ivan\_astikov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/58f4c7/32.png) [@ivan\_astikov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivan_astikov)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2010, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-top-1-the-world-over/545680/155 "2010-07-09T19:11:58Z")
> [@Smeghead](#): > > Wait, wait…let me guess…we’re not allowed to comment on or criticize the movie unless we’ve sat through the entire 90 minutes, am I right? Well, if we were discussing the last episode of Dexter and somebody came in offering their opinions without even seeing it, they’d be deemed to be threadshitting, wouldn’t they? If you can’t find 90 minutes to spare, why should I give your thoughts any real consideration? How about a 10 minute slice of an alternative viewpoint to the one presented by the mass media? [What Would Robert Bowman Do?](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YV3p1FNdGWo&feature=related) Or is that guy another ranting nutjob? ---
**Author:** ![ivan\_astikov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/58f4c7/32.png) [@ivan\_astikov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivan_astikov)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2010, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-top-1-the-world-over/545680/156 "2010-07-09T19:31:55Z")
See what you think of his imaginary inaugural address in part 3. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2010, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-top-1-the-world-over/545680/157 "2010-07-09T19:45:44Z")
> [@ivan\_astikov](#): > > That’s exactly how I’d expect a crafty billionaire to behave. Spread it around among people you can trust to continue lining your pockets, or failing that, use your money to make sure nobody double-crosses you, albeit several proxies removed from your involvement. So John D Rockefeller did not really die in 1937, and is being kept alive as a head in a jar by a secret shadowy conspiracy of evil figures, including the Executive Branch, and possibly that guy down the block who talks to pigeons? What a sneaky guy that John D was (sorry, is). A cunning plot to pretend to die, and then have 150 trusty friends pose as your decendants to “look after” your vast fortune for you, while you stay alive for another 70 years. One question though… Where do the lizard people figure into this? ---
**Author:** ![Chessic\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7c8e57/32.png) [@Chessic\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chessic_Sense)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2010, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-top-1-the-world-over/545680/158 "2010-07-09T19:51:35Z")
**ivan** , why don’t you just draw a big circle around any arbitrary group of people and say that _they_ are evil billionaires? I mean, if you can just lump the Rockefellers into a homogenous whole, why don’t you just do that with, say, the population of, I dunno, [Nevillewood, PA](http://maps.google.com/maps?oe=UTF-8&ie=UTF8&q=Nevillewood+PA&fb=1&gl=us&hq=Nevillewood&hnear=Pennsylvania&view=text&ei=63w3TNK1DIOC8gazk5WnBg&ved=0CBsQtQMwAA&safe=on&ll=40.382415,-80.122046&spn=0.024387,0.038495&z=15)? Those folks have SEVERAL billion dollars! The problem with your argument is that in order for you to find some shadow conspiracy, you have to include so many people that eventually you’ve got the people that _actually do_ control the world. Our government is controlled by World, Inc.? So basically, the governments and all the businesses run the world? No shit. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2010, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-top-1-the-world-over/545680/159 "2010-07-09T19:52:07Z")
So what does a run-amuck Executive Branch have to do with billionaires controlling everything? Which is it, do the billionaires control everything, or does the executive branch control everything? See, the executive branch is an example of power that isn’t based on money. Another example would be the prosecution of [Mikhail Khodorkovsky](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikhail_Khodorkovsky). Here we have the richest man in Russia, yet his riches count for nothing compared to the power of Vladimir Putin. Putin is the most powerful man in Russia, not because he is the richest, but because he controls the army and the security apparatus. Remember kids, money can’t buy happiness. Only power can do that. ---
**Author:** ![ivan\_astikov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/58f4c7/32.png) [@ivan\_astikov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivan_astikov)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2010, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-top-1-the-world-over/545680/160 "2010-07-09T20:28:02Z")
> [@Chessic\_Sense](#): > > **ivan** , why don’t you just draw a big circle around any arbitrary group of people and say that _they_ are evil billionaires? I mean, if you can just lump the Rockefellers into a homogenous whole, why don’t you just do that with, say, the population of, I dunno, [Nevillewood, PA](http://maps.google.com/maps?oe=UTF-8&ie=UTF8&q=Nevillewood+PA&fb=1&gl=us&hq=Nevillewood&hnear=Pennsylvania&view=text&ei=63w3TNK1DIOC8gazk5WnBg&ved=0CBsQtQMwAA&safe=on&ll=40.382415,-80.122046&spn=0.024387,0.038495&z=15)? Those folks have SEVERAL billion dollars! Amassing a billion dollars and keeping it is no easy task, as is evident from the scarcity of such individuals. I’d expect such people to share more interesting character traits , than the population of Peckerwood, USA. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-top-1-the-world-over/545680.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-top-1-the-world-over/545680.md?page=9)