My yacht will be bigger than yours

by David Grand
October 12, 2005

That's what the founder of the software firm Oracle, Lawrence Ellison, can boast of to cofounder of Microsoft, Paul Allen, once the $250 million, 450-foot yacht he's ordered hits the water. It'll be longer than his by 37 feet, but won't have a sixty-foot submarine--sans torpedoes--on it, as Allen's does.

Perhaps it was jealousy, or just his competitive nature, that drove him to play the game of one-upsmanship, since Allen was third on Forbes 400 list of the wealthiest people in the nation with a net worth of $22.5 billion, while he was fifth with $17 billion. A  few more facts about that elite group, that we can only fantasize about joining:

• Their average net worth is $2.5 billion, with their collective fortunes a staggering $1.13 trillion, a jump of $150 billion from 2004, due in no small part to the big tax break they got.
• 145 of 'em inherited some if not all of their wealth, like the wife and four kids of Sam Walton, the founder of Wal-Mart, who were among the top 10, but with a drop in the company's stock reducing their fortunes from last year to just under $18 billion each. (My heart goes out to 'em.)
• 255 members are self-made, like perennial leader of the pack Microsoft's cofounder Bill Gates, whose fortune held steady at $51 billion, as did Warren Buffett's at $44 billion.
• 49 women made it, including that ex-con Martha Stewart, with an average net worth of 3.3 billion. (Hmmm. Wonder if any who are single, besides Martha, may be looking for a gentle, loving elderly man with whom to share their life and fortune?)
• Google's founders, Larry Page and Sergy Brin, who look like they're still "wet behind the ears," were ranked 16th with $11 billion each. (That had me googly-eyed.)   Now, I don't begrudge those billionaires their huge fortunes and living in the "lap of luxury." Nor, do I resent the fact that there's 8.2 million millionaires in the country, and that those with liquid assets of $20 million or more is growing by 3,000 a year; or that 40 US senators--22 Republicans, 18 Democrats--are in the millionaires' club. Ideally, all members of Congress would also be, so as to make them less beholden to special interests groups who fill their campaign "war chests."

But what does give me gas, is the ever widening gap between "the have and have not," where the richest 20 percent of the population earn 48.5 percent of the income, and the poorest 20 percent a mere 5.2 percent; that there's 35.9 million, or 12.5 percent of Americans below the poverty level; that there's 44 million without health insurance; that 1.5 million personal bankruptcies were filed; and that with home prices growing 10 times faster than the average wages of the nation's workers, "Joe Blow" is forced to go farther and farther out to find an affordable place, which is called "Drive 'till you qualify." (The average price for a house, as of March 31, 2005 was $225,000; and to qualify for an average-priced home, one needs an income of $71,354 per year and a minimum 10 percent down.)

Wouldn't it be something I thought, if those "Forbies" were, to show their gratitude for this nation's capitalistic system, donated, say, a fourth of their wealth to help the country out of the financial sinkhole it's currently in. Why,  that would cover the $200 billion price tag for rebuilding the Gulf Coast, with enough left over to make a significant dent in the $350 billion budget deficit.

I know I sound like that impractical idealist Don Quixote, who dreamed the impossible dream in Cervantes' "Man of La Mancha." I won't deny it, for I've dreamt countless ones in my life, and still am.