There are hundreds of people in the United States with so much money that they will never be able to spend their net worth, no matter how many Picassos or mansions or personal jets they buy. Last year, for the first time, everyone in the Forbes 400 index of the super-wealthy was a billionaire.
Income for the top 1 percent of Americans has more than doubled in the past quarter of a century, while that of the bottom fifth barely budged.
The rich, in short, are getting steadily richer, in absolute terms and compared with the rest of society. Sales of 200-foot-plus yachts and other indulgences of extreme wealth are at record highs.
Yet with the sainted exception of Warren Buffett and Bill Gates, virtually all of them refuse to give any meaningful fraction of their wealth to the less fortunate - or even to give a decent fraction to such endeavors as art or medical research, which they would benefit from.
[Excerpt of an article by Gregg Easterbrook, The San Jose Mercury News]
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