The 10 Richest Fuckers in America

So the list of 400 or whatever richest fuckers in America showed up in Forbes, and then in the more accessible San Francisco Chronicle today. The top few are obvious: Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Paul Allen, Michael Dell, and Larry Ellison. Big software/hardware and investment tycoons. I mean, Bill Gates alone is worth $51 billion. Do you have any idea how much money that actually is? Here, let me write it in a more standard way: $51,000,000,000. Most people have a mere nano-fraction of that in their account now.

Anyway, so what makes me a little freaked out about it is the bottom 5 on the top 10 (I didn't see the whole list, but I bet it goes on like this): Christy Walton, Jim Walton, Robson Walton, Alice Walton, and Helen Walton. Have you ever heard of these people? Well, I haven't, but something strikes me as funny about the names... could they be part of the same family? Well, yes. It turns out they made their $15 billion or so each with Wal-Mart stores.

Now, the thing about Larry Ellison and Steve Jobs and yes, even Bill Gates is that when they hire people to make them richer, they pay these people well. The software/hardware guys managed to get rich despite paying many people hundreds of thousands of dollars (each) per year. The Wal-Mart fuckers got rich by fucking their employees.

What a swell place we live in. Oh, and goodbye gulf coast. We will miss you.