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From: carnes@gargoyle.UUCP (Richard Carnes)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: Welfare (distribution of wealth in US)
Message-ID: <392@gargoyle.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 29-Mar-86 19:10:37 EST
Article-I.D.: gargoyle.392
Posted: Sat Mar 29 19:10:37 1986
Date-Received: Mon, 31-Mar-86 20:00:32 EST
Reply-To: carnes@gargoyle.UUCP (Richard Carnes)
Distribution: na
Organization: U. of Chicago, Computer Science Dept.
Lines: 23
Summary: 

> As J. Peter Grace discovered, if you
>confiscated *all* of the wealth from people who made over $75K per
>year, you could finance the federal govt for about 7.2 days.

The "Harper's Index" column in the Dec. 1984 Harper's states that the
combined net worth of the 400 richest Americans is $125 billion.
(Unfortunately Harper's doesn't list their source.)  This sum would
finance the entire military budget for 5 or 6 months, or all federal
anti-poverty spending for several years, or service the federal debt
for a year or so.

It is a safe bet that the combined net worth of everyone who makes
more than $75K is far greater than that.  So I wonder whether David
Olson has misunderstood Grace, or whether Grace has deluded himself.
It is also a safe bet that the Great Prevaricator will cite this
non-fact at some point in a speech or press conference.  

It is interesting to note that the richest 1.2 million Americans,
comprising about 3-400,000 families, own individually, on average,
around 160 times as much wealth as the 190 million Americans who are
least well off (if we divide wealth equally among family members).  
-- 
Richard Carnes, ihnp4!gargoyle!carnes