How much is a million?
Posted 07-21-2013 at 04:28 PM by Fortoggie
My home town had personality! For one thing it had one of the best high School football teams in the state of Tennessee. For another, we took a lot of pride in saying that we had more millionaires, than any other town of our size in the south. Why, we poor folk, who didn't have two nickels to rub together, took pride in that I will never know.:smack
All told there was supposed to be 13 millionaires in our town of 15,000. Nobody knew for sure because they were surrounded in secrecy, even their servants and groundskeepers were sworn to secrecy. Six of these rich folk ran manufacturing companies and worked a lot of people. Three were bankers, one was heavy in real estate, one in insurance and the other one, no one knew how he had become so well- to- do.
Later when I had learned how to research these things, I realized that seven of these folk were worth over 10 million each.
Down through the years I have tried to keep tab on these rich folk and except for one, all have gotten richer, much richer. The one whose fortune fizzled developed a mental problem and it was from his niece that I learned a great deal about the others.
Those of us who grew up poor have a hard time of wrapping our head around a million dollars, although there are 500,000 americans who have net worth of over a million. Even yours truly reached that magic number for a short time.
But now we see and hear a lot about billionaires. We po folk ought to do a lot more thinking about zeros added to peoples fortunes. As a test, I challenge you to ask three people next week; how many million does it take to make a billion? If anyone passes the test, then ask if Jeff Bezos gains in wealth by five billion this year: how many million per day is he gaining? Clearly most people do not think about these things, but we ought to.
Back to my home town; Five of the six went on to retire and some to die leaving over 300 million each to their heirs but very little to their community, which in reality made their success possible. One according to Forbes, is worth a billion but has divided it up between his heirs with the hope of not making the Forbes billionaire list. I have not been able to find the worth of the other five,others but all are believed to be worth, several million at this time.
If there is a point to this blog it is that this town now has a population of 50,000 , with at least 11,000 of them in poverty and with an average family income [ according to city-data ] of $ 39,000.00 per year. I wonder if the poor are still boosting about all the rich people in the town?
All told there was supposed to be 13 millionaires in our town of 15,000. Nobody knew for sure because they were surrounded in secrecy, even their servants and groundskeepers were sworn to secrecy. Six of these rich folk ran manufacturing companies and worked a lot of people. Three were bankers, one was heavy in real estate, one in insurance and the other one, no one knew how he had become so well- to- do.
Later when I had learned how to research these things, I realized that seven of these folk were worth over 10 million each.
Down through the years I have tried to keep tab on these rich folk and except for one, all have gotten richer, much richer. The one whose fortune fizzled developed a mental problem and it was from his niece that I learned a great deal about the others.
Those of us who grew up poor have a hard time of wrapping our head around a million dollars, although there are 500,000 americans who have net worth of over a million. Even yours truly reached that magic number for a short time.
But now we see and hear a lot about billionaires. We po folk ought to do a lot more thinking about zeros added to peoples fortunes. As a test, I challenge you to ask three people next week; how many million does it take to make a billion? If anyone passes the test, then ask if Jeff Bezos gains in wealth by five billion this year: how many million per day is he gaining? Clearly most people do not think about these things, but we ought to.
Back to my home town; Five of the six went on to retire and some to die leaving over 300 million each to their heirs but very little to their community, which in reality made their success possible. One according to Forbes, is worth a billion but has divided it up between his heirs with the hope of not making the Forbes billionaire list. I have not been able to find the worth of the other five,others but all are believed to be worth, several million at this time.
If there is a point to this blog it is that this town now has a population of 50,000 , with at least 11,000 of them in poverty and with an average family income [ according to city-data ] of $ 39,000.00 per year. I wonder if the poor are still boosting about all the rich people in the town?
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I marvel at how uninterested the working man is in the fortunes of the rich. Yet the rich who lend out money, want us to fill out long forms, telling everything about ourselves, except maybe when we go to the bathroom.
It behooves us to learn everything we can about the rich among us, now with the help of computers that should be easier than ever. Jump on this blog and tell us what you know about the rich in your area. Probably not their names, just the other information.Posted 08-30-2013 at 04:22 PM by Fortoggie
