The .01%
Here’s a striking fact:
The 17 people who US president-elect Donald Trump has selected for his cabinet or for posts with cabinet rank have well over $9.5 billion in combined wealth, with several positions still unfilled. This collection of wealth is greater than that of the 43 million least wealthy American households combined—over one third of the 126 million households total in the US.
Affluence of this magnitude in a US presidential cabinet is unprecedented.
Well that’ll show the coastal elites in their bubble a thing or two.
Huh.
Liberal bubbles
Trump’s cabinet bubbles
It’s almost like people shouldn’t have believed the fairy tale that a moneygrubbing swindler would look out for them. Almost.
https://www.facebook.com/144310995587370/photos/a.271728576178944.71555.144310995587370/1377511015600689/?type=3&theater
So, the article claims that that level of wealth in the cabinet is unprecedented, and then backs that up by comparing it to… the least wealthy households in the country and the median household? How about comparing it to the level of wealth in the current cabinet, or dollar-adjusted previous cabinets? Makes me wonder just how unprecedented it really is.
Yes, but, see, these are _outsider_ billionaires.
And Karellen: looks pretty unprecedented to me, even if the article doesn’t make it quite so clear. Could start spreadsheeting it if you’re honestly that terribly skeptical about this, but I figure you’ll find it’s the difference mostly between single-figure multi-millionaires and multi-billionaries. I recall that as recently as a few years ago Pritzker was noted as that cabinet’s first billionaire, and it did quite pull up the average all on its own. Kerry, worth several hundreds of millions, also stood out from the rest by a fair bit, and _that_ gave people discomfiture, once upon a time. Went from there through a few worth a few million down to Biden and a few other around the same cluster, who actually _are_ middle class by the number–hundreds of thousands. You own a house in most cities on this continent, you’re probably worth more on paper than several of Obama’s cabinet.
Which kinda makes me chuckle darkly and ruefully. I remember commenting there’s this peculiar rhetorical feint comes up all the time when these ‘outsiders’ run… It’s ‘things are not good… We must do _something_.’…
But somehow, what that something actually _is_ becomes completely outside the consideration. And I’m laughing ruefully because, yes, people were _long_ muttering the cabinet were too rich, so how could they relate… Multi-millionaires, oh dear…
We must _do_ something… I know, let’s appoint _billionaires_. Much better…
It’s like someone arguing listen, the house is on fire… We must _do_ something.
Like, say, pour all this gasoline on it… I mean, I _have_ gasoline… Seems easy enough, let’s try that…
And sure, it’s definitely doing ‘something’, I guess, fair enough.
Well, AJ, if your real goal is to burn down the house, I guess pouring gasoline on it would do something in the direction of fulfilling what you want. If you really want to break the government, then inexperienced billionaires are there to help.
Honestly, a lot of Trump voters are opposed to regulations, because they believe it increases their cost and their trouble without doing anything good…they think the market would do it better, and know absolutely none of the history that could demonstrate otherwise. So this might be fine with them, because it really isn’t about how rich they are, but how much they want to destroy the government.
I wonder when the last time was that Trump deliberately hired someone who had stated a very strong desire to get the job so he could destroy the company? That’s just rhetorical, but if you know of such a time, feel free to answer.
@AJ Milne, sorry for late reply, but not actually that interested in the numbers. Just annoyed at a journalist claiming that something is terrible and unprecedented, and then either does not cite any data to back up their claim, or, worse, cites completely different and irrelevant data to as if to try and pull a fast on on the reader.
Shitty journalism is shitty. If we’re going to try and show people who don’t currently see the danger, that it is indeed there, we need good journalism, supported by good data and fact-checking to show them. It might still not be enough, but if the journalism is bad, then that gives people an easy and obvious reason to dismiss it and the argument it makes.