The 25 Richest People in the World 2019

Here’s a quick recap of the top 25 richest people in the world in 2019:

1. Jeff Bezos
2. Bill Gates
3. Bernard Arnault
4. Warren Buffett
5. Amancio Ortega
6. Carlos Slim Helu
7. Larry Ellison
8. Mark Zuckerberg
9. Michael Bloomberg
10. Larry Page
11. Mukesh Ambani
12. Sergey Brin
13. Francoise Bettencourt Meyers
14. Charles Koch
15. David Koch
16. Jim Walton
17. Alice Walton
18. S. Robson Walton
19. Steve Ballmer
20. Ma Huateng
21. Hui Ka Yan
22. Jack Ma
23. Sheldon Adelson
24. Li Ka-Shing
25. Lee Shau Kee

There is a new richest man in the world: Jeff Bezos.

https://wealthygorilla.com/top-20-richest-people-world/

How does per-capita personal income vary by state, once we adjust for regional differences in both: a) personal taxes, and b) prices?

FIND OUT HERE.

Obama lied about the rich

A new Congressional Budget Office study has torn a hole in yet another one of President Obama’s insistent claims about the way things are.

The Congressional Budget Office study, “The Distribution of Household Income and Federal Taxes, 2010, ” shows that the top 40 percent of households, based on pre-tax income, paid a remarkable 106.2 percent of the nation’s income tax in 2010. Meanwhile, households in the bottom 40 percent paid “negative income tax,” receiving an average of $18,950 in government transfer payments while paying no federal income tax.

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It's time

The Time to Eradicate Poverty Has Arrived

Dick McDonald

Today the people of the United States of America have an opportunity to make the world a better place. Rather than wasting time compromising the political ideologies of progressives and conservatives, Americans could use that time to employ modern economic and scientific advancements to eradicate poverty. 

The USA could lead the world into a new era where prosperity is the rule rather than the exception.

For example, if  Americans had enough money on which to live a decent life and a million-dollar nest egg to retire on (then pass on to their families) we wouldn’t need government to tax Americans to fund safety nets like Social Security and Medicare.  We wouldn’t have a $138 trillion debt to contend with; America would be financially solvent and countries all over the world would emulate us.

All economies throughout history have been free enterprise, free market, capitalist economies unless temporarily sidetrack by populist ideologues practicing socialism or dictators employing tyranny. Therefore in order to make a free enterprise, free market, capitalist economy like ours into one that sponsors the prosperity of the poor and lower classes it has to create the opportunity for the poor to invest in that economy and prosper in its growth.

Man hasn’t had the tools to address poverty until recently. With the advent of the digital age, massive and flexible databases, the internet and instant communications he now has them.  He can make dramatic nation-wide moves that will eventually enable all the people to achieve the American Dream of financial independence. No political party or political think tank is even attempting to address making the poor rich. It is the time to do so; in the process most of our economic and social ills will either fade or disappear entirely. 

We can’t make the poor rich without making all citizens even richer. To do that requires a simple change in the way the government does business. Instead of imposing a 15.3% payroll tax on income we propose the government send that money undiluted directly to an independent unreachable trust for all citizens to be maintained in each taxpayer’s own “USA” – universal savings account – and immediately invested weekly on their behalf and under their direction into indexed stock funds for their working life. 

The average American makes $50,000 a year and pays either 15.3% in payroll taxes if self-employed or shares in paying that amount with his employer if he works for somebody. The yearly $7,500 ($50,000 x 15%) investment amounts to $300,000 (40 years x $7,500) over an average 40-year working life. Invested weekly in indexed funds at the average rate of return of the S&P 500 in 40-year cycles generates a $4 million nest egg which throws off a $33,333 a month retirement check without reducing the principal. See here for the computation by year.

Today the market cap of all stocks on American exchanges is about $50 trillion. If in 40 years just 150 million Americans had a $4 million nest egg the market cap would be $600 trillion. In other words it took 236 years to get to $50 trillion. It would, under my plan, take just 40 years to add $550 trillion to that amount at today’s prices.

Given the choice of becoming a millionaire without investing a dime out of your present paycheck or staying on welfare and dependency programs most will opt for the former. In this manner the Plan, www.theusaplan , will wean welfare recipients off welfare and reduce the need for excess government workers.

Millions of jobs will be immediately created by the infusion of almost a trillion dollars a year into the stock market where the selling shareholders will no doubt invest much of their proceeds in new exciting ventures that will require millions of new employees.

In this manner the poor will be helping create their own new jobs and working-life income and at the same time insuring themselves of an affluent retirement and the best old-age medical care on the planet. 

A rising tide lifts all boats. Unfortunately America’s boat has been in dry dock too long. Enacting my plan will be the rising tide that makes the poor rich as well as everyone else richer.  The country will then be exceptional place we claim it is.

Let’s agree poverty has no place in the 21^st Century.

Read all about the Prosperity Commission’s USA Plan and its Rise Up Theory of Economics here.  Join us in our effort to make the world a better place.  You can e-mail us your thoughts at dick@...

How Republicans can give Democrats everything they want - UPDATE

Yes We Can

http://www.newyorkdailysun.com/yes-we-can/1117

What Democrats Want Republicans Should Give Them

http://www.newyorkdailysun.com/what-democrats-want-republicans-should-give-them/1133

UPDATE:

Another article printed by the NY Daily Sun.

Powerful Democrat Says No to Obama’s Plan: We suggest a better plan

http://www.newyorkdailysun.com/powerful-democrat-says-no-to-obamas-plan-we-suggest-a-better-plan/1205

Republicans are attempting to divert the nation — not from the “fiscal cliff” but from something much worse...

If government debt is not controlled by spending cuts (tax increases on the rich make scarcely a dent), the U.S. is headed for drastic economic decline. Interest rates will rise to attract wary international investors. Rising interest rates will in turn increase our debt service burden, while a diminished private sector will provide less and less tax revenue. The combination of spiraling debt service and entitlement spending will quickly leave no funds for any other purpose.

Think: Mad Max

Introducing THE USA PLAN

The USA Plan is bold and truly revolutionary. It should satisfy both capitalists and collectivists, Republicans and Democrats, Libertarians and Anarchists and everyone in between because it makes the poor, the middle-class and the rich wealthier – in fact it delivers the American Dream to just about everyone.

www.TheUsaPlan.com

The USA Plan is designed to increase the wealth of all citizens not just the few. It is triggered by the reduction of taxes imposed on them by government. The Plan is based on the Rise Up Theory of Economics which elevates the financial rights of the individual over those of the state.


The Rise Up Theory does for the poor and middle class what the "Trickle Down" Theory did for the rich - it makes them wealthy. It closes the gap between the rich and the poor and eliminates the cry for social justice. It reduces the income disparity which has become a major political issue for which no party has been proposing a workable solution. The USA Plan is that solution.


It is a simple concept, it redirects the 15.3% presently paid by individuals (and in the case of employees, their employers too) in the form of payroll taxes into a personally-owned investment account ( a “USA” – a Universal Savings Account)) that will grow into millions over the citizen's working life. The funds are invested in safe indexed stock funds that have historically been growing at over a 10% rate for the last 25 years.


At that rate of return a taxpayer or household making an average $50,000 per year would invest 15% per year or $7,500 and generate over a 40-year working life a $4 million nest egg. Go to the website www.theusaplan.com to review the year by year analysis of how the $300,000 ($7,500 x 40 years) accumulates, grows and compounds into a $4 million-dollar nest egg which will throw off a $33,000 a month retirement check.


As it will not require a taxpayer to invest his after-tax dollars into IRA or similar retirement plans it will cost no more than what is presently being taken by government. Americans can then use their after-tax cash to support their chosen lifestyles. The USA Plan will insure them of an affluent retirement and enough monthly income to buy the best medical care on the planet. The Plan eliminates the need to save for retirement.


As we know all private and public pension funds are all heavily invested in the stock market. By creating a vehicle to fund the growth of the private sector the investment of “USA” funds will immediately create millions of new jobs while at the same time guaranteeing the taxpayer a million-dollar nest egg at retirement. It will explode the overall wealth of the nation. The USA Plan is a short- term solution as well as a long-term solution we all are looking for.


Man has been saddled with poverty since the beginning of time. The few who were fortunate enough to be born into wealth or smart enough to accumulate it throughout history have always been a very small number of people. American independence changed all that to enable more 0f the population to become wealthy.


Unfortunately one-hundred years ago that independence permitted the people to give the right to tax incomes to the state which has been perverted into a mechanism to funnel wealth to the very few who know how to legally avoid taxation - Guys like Warren Buffet and Bill Gates whose fortunes have never been taxed because we don’t tax the appreciation in value until the stock is sold.


America has never attempted to solve the riddle of poverty but has left that up to the individual. He or she either sinks or swims AFTER TAXES. And there is the problem. By punitive taxation and suffocating regulation that raise all costs of living most Americans can’t save or work their way out of poverty. The talk of the American Dream of financial independence is just that – talk.


The Rise Up Theory of Economics as incorporated in the USA Plan will solve the riddle of poverty and generate all kinds of peripheral benefits not the least of which will be the elimination of war as soon as the Plan is adopted throughout the world.


War is not waged by people who want to protect their property.


Of course “peace on earth” depends on America leading the way and exercising leadership and resolve not to change or weaken the


USA Plan.

Rise up, America!

Income of Blacks Dropped $6,048 PER YEAR Under President Hope and Change

by Dick McDonald

When Peggy Joseph famously intoned in the last presidential election that  “Obama’s going to pay my gas and my mortgage” little did she know her blind support of Obama’s ‘HOPE AND CHANGE” would result in a 4 year drop in the  income of the average black of $24,000.  Now you won’t hear a joke about that from Dave Letterman or John Stewart because they still believe their President is working to make the poor better off.  The facts say differently but you won’t hear that from the main stream Obamamedia either. They still foolishly hope this town crier and his redistributionist Marxist policies will make the tide rise for all.  Tell that to Peggy Joseph.

I believe when history is written it will paint Obama as a tragic figure that had good intentions but went into office with flawed ideas how on to solve the country’s problems.  Remember he is the man who rode into office saying that under Bush and the Republicans that the income of average Americans was “flat” whereas the income of rich Americans was soaring. Well folks he has managed to make that “income disparity” worse not better.

 

When all is said and done we have a shrinking rich and middle class and a bloated almost poor society - made poor by policies that favor a government and its politicians over its people. Rise Up America and throw the bums out.

UPDATE: WHY OBAMA DOESN’T CARE ABOUT POOR BLACKS

Do the rich pay their “fair share”?

The answer to this question should start with an agreement on an accepted definition of fair. But those who assert that the rich do not pay their fair share have not provided such a definition.13

Here is how the federal income tax burden was distributed in 2009 (the most recent year for which data are available):14 

So what is a “fair share”? The U.S. tax system is more progressive than that of any other advanced economy. Higher-income workers already pay a substantially disproportionate amount of the income tax relative to their share of income. The top five percent pay 44 percent more in taxes than the bottom 95 percent, while 47 percent of tax filers pay no tax at all. The bottom 50 percent of filers pay only 2.3 percent of taxes, and the bottom quintile gets money back.

Based on these facts, how does one make a case that the rich are not paying their fair share?

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2 myths about "the rich"

CNBC:

The presidential election has given us two myths about the rich. First, that their incomes, and income inequality, are at all-time highs. Second, that the wealthy pay less in taxes than ever, and lower taxes than the rest of us.

A recent report from the Congressional Budget Office, however, suggests that both may be false.

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About those fat-cat Hollywood hypocrites

Adam Carolla sez:

“They all pretend like they’re part of the 99 percent, but they’re not; they’re part of the 1 percent,” he said of Hollywood’s liberal elites. “They’re all incorporated, they all have tax attorneys, believe me. . .”

He pointed to liberal documentary filmmaker Michael Moore as the classic example of a Hollywood phony.

“Michael Moore makes $30 million a year, $40 million a year, but he’s part of the 99 percenters? Now he has to keep up that façade,” Carolla said.

“So he has to show up wearing the ball cap and the t-shirt, because if he ever shows up with a top hat and a monocle, he’s going to be tossed out of his club. … They all do the same thing.”

Subsidies of the Rich and Famous

The Daily Caller:

Coburn report: Bon Jovi, Springsteen, Quincy Jones, Ted Turner received federal funds

It turns out that the top 10 CEOs have an average salary of $43 million, which pales in comparison with America's top 10 celebrities, who earn an average salary of $100 million

Walter E. Williams: Pitting Us Against Each Other

Don't you wonder why so many celebrities cozy up to Obama?

TAXES and the RICH

The only way for the government to solve its fiscal issues with revenue would be to confiscate every single dollar from every single American making $200,000 or more per year

CNSNEWS.com - Warren Buffett’s Taxing the Rich Won't Solve Deficit, Says Tax Foundation

Slamming the rich by contending that they should pay more in taxes to equalize income is the sin of envy...

...Envy is not the same as jealousy or covetousness. The covetous person says, “I wish I had what he has, and I’m miserable that I don’t have it.” Envy is quantitatively different. “I’d like to have what he has, but I know I can never get it. Nobody should be allowed to have it or at least that much of it. I’ll work to destroy it. Maybe I can get the government to make it illegal to own or too expensive to keep.” This is why the Bible describes envy as “rottenness of the bones” (Prov. 14:30). . .

Cain was the first envier. . .

Modern-day economic theory feeds off the sin of envy. The first step is to promise the citizenry that they will get some of the largess of the rich. When that only goes so far, legislators will make it more difficult for the prosperous to remain prosperous. Obstacles will be put up to stifle their success, all in the name of equality. We’ve seen it happen before. The Communists had to build a wall around East Berlin to keep the industrious from fleeing the politics of envy.

Why Some People Want to Stick it to the Rich

RyanCare would be far less injurious to seniors than ObamaCare or, for that matter, doing nothing.

Official calculations show that Medicare has $34 trillion less than it needs to keep all its promises to seniors. Yet ObamaCare will take $500 billion out of Medicare over 10 years to cover 30 million uninsured Americans.

Basic arithmetic suggests that this would hasten the demise of the program. Not so, according to President Obama. He says he’ll squeeze out savings by cutting reimbursement to providers. ObamaCare will create something called the Independent Payment Advisory Board, composed of 15 experts. Their job will be to hold down spending by identifying reimbursement cuts, and their recommendations will be binding on Congress. If this board recommends what many fear it will, Medicare’s reimbursement rates will drop below Medicaid’s, which will mean that doctors will turn away seniors like they do the poor. In effect, in addition to an early death option, ObamaCare offers seniors diminished access to quality care. If this is compassion, give me cruelty.

RyanCare is not perfect, but at least it won’t rob Grandma Millie to buy Cousin Joe coverage.

Medicare’s least bad fix

Rate of Return Nonsense

by Dick McDonald Ownership Society Institute

The most effective argument against the privatization of Social Security and Medicare that Democrats and their propagandists have used to defeat any meaningful discussions is “the stock market is too risky.”

Ignoring the reality that almost all existing government and private retirement and old-age medical plans invest in the stock market (with the exception of Social Security and Medicare which are pay-as-you-go “Ponzi-type” schemes) their “too risky” propaganda doesn’t hold water.

First we have to consider what we are doing in crafting plans to finance Social Security and Medicare costs. Isn’t it true that we are looking to finance costs that won’t arise until after the taxpayer retires from an active working life of 40 to 50 years? Therefore we need to craft a plan that is very long-term in nature not short-term.

This brings us back to the rate of return nonsense that is accepted by so many Americans – “the stock market is too risky.” Well it isn’t risky over the long-term. In fact its average rate of return in 40-year increments ever since the S&P 500 started being tracked in 1871 is almost 10% per year.

In its long march from 1 to today’s 12,000 the DOW industrial average has experienced dramatic “short-term” swings. The DOW fell 60% in the great depression. Generally it falls 40% in recessions. In today’s Great Recession it fell 50%. It tumbled from 12,000 to 6,000. However, we are not in unchartered waters. The market always rebounds and then moves higher. Isn’t it over 12,000 today?

Now let’s add to the anti-privatization rhetoric the common argument that I can only get 1% interest on my savings account. Well bank interest is not worthy of discussion. Let’s take a look at the rate of return stocks have experienced on the rebound as of today February 26, 2011.

1. The DOW is up 85% from its March 9, 2009 low.
2. NASDAQ is up 119% from its March 9, 2009 low.
3. S&P 500 is up 95% from its March 9, 2009 low.

Therefore if you funded your retirement on March 9, 2009 your portfolio has probably doubled in value. Now discard the nonsense about bank interest and embrace stocks – they are our salvation.

The long-term advantages of investing in a fund of stocks that track average rates of return are undeniable. A plan that invests in indexed-type stock funds is the only answer to solving our present entitlement-debt crisis.

By replacing Social Security and Medicare with a reasoned stock-investment plan we not only solve our debt problem but our economic problems as well. By investing our annual payroll taxes of $1 trillion in the stock market will generate trillions in new economic activity and tens of millions of jobs.

We must realize such a plan will make even a janitor a millionaire at retirement. The rich will become richer and the country that promised shining city on the hill. It will deliver the American Dream, not the political one but the one we all day dream of.

Today society is in a budget-cutting frenzy to solve its financial problems. However they are ignoring the revenue factor. New Congressman Colonel Adam West put it bluntly this morning “we don’t have a revenue problem we have a spending problem.” I totally disagree, we have both and the Tea Party is missing the boat by agreeing with West.

Republicans, Tea Partiers, Democrats and the talkers are presently recommending less than 1% solutions to our endemic spending problems and zero on direct revenue raising solutions. The solution in raising revenues is not by raising taxes but increasing tax revenues which only occur in a free society when tax rates are low and the returns on investments high.

Now if you understand the rate of return issue turn your focus on to increasing economic activity by reducing tax rates. The attending increase in economic activity will solve many of our problems by exploding the tax revenues without raising rates.

Those interested in cutting Federal taxes by 40% and reducing the average tax load on Americans by 40%, solving our debt crisis and exploding the economy upwards might consider the plan enumerated here.

The rate of return will take care of itself. Invest in America.

Where is the money?

It's here.

A Tutorial on Wealth Creation(Tea Party Pay Attention!)

Dick McDonald

According to a recent Rasmussen Poll 63% of the people believe the American Society is fair and decent. Let’s check and see how you feel about that after you read the following.

Super rich people hardly pay any income taxes on their billions.

Bernie Sanders, the socialist Senator from Vermont, last week was railing against the passage of the Bush Tax Cut legislation by informing us that the super rich, according to a recent study of 400 billionaires pay on average only 16% in income and payroll taxes.

That is bunk. I say they pay at a maximum a small fraction of 1%. Generally their wealth is derived from stock ownership and their enormous wealth comes from the appreciation of that stock(s) over the years. As the appreciation in the value of stock is not taxed their wealth is accumulated FREE OF TAX. It is the ultimate tax shelter.

Warren Buffet’s wealth increased $10 billion in 2006 and he claimed in front of Congress that he paid 17% in taxes on his income that year. He testified that he should pay more in taxes because his staff paid on average 32%. He said that was unfair and that rich people should pay more in taxes.

What a whooper that was. He didn’t pay $1.7 billion in taxes he paid less than $10 million (or 10% of 1% - .oo1) in taxes because stock appreciation (his business) is not taxed. Now through some deceptive method of computation he probably said he paid 15.3% in payroll taxes on his $100,000 salary from Berkshire Hathaway and 1.7% in total in capital gains taxes to arrive at his fictitious 17%.

Of course Warren Buffet knew as did all billionaires the Bush tax cuts were of little consequence to them. They don’t pay tax on appreciation of their stock. And even in the case of dividends, they don’t have to pay them if the rate returned to Bush levels. Bernie Sanders and all the uninformed citizens and their propagandists in politics and media swallowed this tax cut propaganda.

Those who really get hurt are the millionaires who don’t use the tax-free stock ownership route and pay these absolutely confiscatory taxes on income. They are the primary job creators – small businessmen on the way up who use Subchapter S corporations and pay taxes personally to avoid corporate double taxation. Double taxation, of course, is just another fallacy. The super rich avoid all taxation on “income and wealth.” Double taxation for the super rich is a myth for public consumption.

Super rich people do not pay estate taxes

One of the stumbling blocks in the tax bill that passed was the rate of estate tax. Liberals were fiercely resisted lowering that rate to 35% for estates over $5 million. They wanted it to remain at 55% on “taxable estates” over $1 million. On the other hand conservatives grumbled that such wealth had already been taxed and to tax it again was unfair double taxation.

Well as any tax man will tell you billionaires don’t pay estate taxes. They take a deduction from the “taxable estate” for all amounts given to charity. As those charities are usually created by the billionaires themselves they can control their money from the grave.

All this publicity by Bill Gates and Warren Buffet getting billionaires to give half their estate to charity is so much baloney for public consumption. These guys are not going to pay any estate tax; they will give it all to charity.

Really intelligent super rich people’s kids don’t pay taxes on wealth

There are a number of devices available to the super rich to avoid having their kids pay estate taxes on the accumulated wealth. Here again the trick is to transfer the ownership of the assets – usually stock – to the kids early on in life and let the non-taxable appreciation accrue for the benefit of the kids. Those assets are then passed on to the kid free of tax at death of the super rich man or woman.

J. Paul Getty, the “first” billionaire, transferred 2/3rds of all he ever owned to his grandkids in trust in his 30’s. At death the remainder of his estate went to his Museum. He personally as well as his corporations paid no income taxes during his lifetime because of percentage depletion and the deductibility of intangible drilling costs; his corporations’ share of payroll taxes were paid for by passing those costs on to the consumer and he paid no death taxes nor did his kids or grandkids. As I said, the super wealthy pay no taxes.

The wealthy make the free market grow and the country prosper. Poor people are in line to do that too.

Now you may believe as many working men and liberals do that it is very unfair that the super rich pay little or no taxes. You may believe that the rich store that wealth in a way that it never comes back to benefit the economy. You would be wrong. Wealth is always at work benefitting the economy. If it is invested in stocks – it is working. If it is in the bank the bank has to lend it therefore – it is working.

The Pitch to the Tea Party

This little tutorial on wealth creation was written to expose the poor, the middle class and even the rich to the wonders of tax-free appreciation in stock. As you know we are in a world of hurt economically. If we could get all those citizens to follow the lead of the super rich and invest in the stock market two things will happen – (1) the less than super rich will get wealthy and (2) the economy will take off and millions of jobs will be created.

In this crucial time in our history, America needs new ideas on how to reform our government. I contend that to do that we need to avoid the austerity the politicians are planning to impose to make the government more solvent and promote a new blueprint that solves poverty, income discrepancy, freedom and free market problems at the same time. It is time we focus on prosperity. Are you listening Tea Partiers?

There is a blueprint of new ideas that you might consider. Going down the path the Debt Commission and all politicians are promoting will lead to riots in the streets. Those interested in a logical redo along the lines our Founders designed see here. More importantly it outlines where the poor get the capital to invest in stocks as well as where to get the funds to pay for our existing entitlement obligations.

Dick McDonald is a former Arthur Anderson C.P.A. who did the taxes of the richest man in the world at that time, J. Paul Getty