Maroon Weekly

By Ryan Stone

The BBC recently ran a story titled “Richest Americans hit by downturn.”

This follows an earlier story they ran titled “UK super-rich hit in downturn.” That show follows, “Rich list hit by economic crisis,” which follows, “India’s richest men lose billions.”
Take a minute to digest that and let’s look at some numbers. Last year, Bill Gates was worth $57 billion. This year, he’s worth a paltry $50 billion. Last year, Warren Buffet was worth $50 billion. This year, he’s fallen to $40 billion. If that’s not bad enough, the Waltons of Wal-Mart notoriety went from $23.2 billion to a measly $21.5 billion-and the BBC saw fit to report on all this.

And they’re not alone. CNN recently ran a story concerned about how the 400 richest Americans are now only worth a combined $1.27 trillion. A lot of Americans don’t understand how small a number that really is. If you spent $1 million a day starting in 500 B.C., around the beginning of the Roman Empire, and stopped in 2009, you still wouldn’t have spent as much money as the top 400 richest Americans have amongst themselves. That’s simply not enough.
The BBC also reports that, as of this past April, there are 32 fewer billionaires in the UK than there were in April last year. That’s 32 whole people. And, if that’s not bad enough, the BBC also reports that the top music millionaires in the UK have lost a collective 10 percent of their total wealth. Sir Elton John, who was worth a staggering $376 million (£ 235 million), is now worth only $240 million. Sir Paul McCartney has dropped from $800 million to $704 million, and if I told you how Amy Winehouse is doing, you’d probably cry.

So why do these several hundred people get so much press? Because the top 1 percent owns about 50 percent of the world’s wealth.

Buy a CD or a song from iTunes. Go into any store and pick out a name brand. Shop at Best Buy. Drink a Coke. Eat at a chain restaurant. Go to Wal-Mart. These are some ways you can help the top 400 get back to where they were. If those sounds like things you would do on a daily basis, then you are already a sponsor of these hurting few. If you don’t do those things, I urge you to start now.

Why? Because the only way they can recover from such a staggering loss is to cut the workforce, cut pay and benefits and restructure their companies and conglomerates in a way that hurts the bottom 50 percent who, incidentally, only control 1 percent of the world’s wealth. In short, if you don’t pay them, they can’t pay you because they simply won’t have enough money.

Some people would say that isn’t fair and I understand. The labor force needs to mobilize and work harder. There should be mandatory twelve-hour days if necessary. People need to start taking lower wages if they aren’t already. If you have benefits, give them up voluntarily to show your support for your employer. If you aren’t employed, find a company that’s hurting and join their ranks. Show them that you care, that you can slave for a pittance to keep this economy running. Be humble. Because that’s what this all comes down to, you keeping your head down and the gears turning.

So, look ahead. There can be a brighter future for our world’s wealthiest few if we work hard to bring them back from the brink. Just think, in a few years, when projections come out for the 2012 or 2013 economy, and you see that Viacom or Hewlett-Packard or Virgin are booming, and BBC runs a story titled, “India’s richest men are rich again,” you’ll know that it was due to your hard work and patronage and that it’s all been worth it.