Visually Grasping "Big Money"

this is just amazing lol. thanks to Nodoz for finding this

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if you don't understand these numbers

$700 billion is nothing (video)

Defense Department Cannot Account For 25% Of Funds — $2.3 Trillion

9/10/2001: Rumsfeld says $2.3 TRILLION Missing from Pentagon (video)

you almost have to laugh when you see all this, after it becomes so obvious. the media chooses exactly what should be on our national conscience, while other/more severe forms of obvious corruption get overshadowed by other stories they divert our attention to. your government thinks you're stupid and knows they can get away with almost anything.

Bill Gates No Longer World's Richest Man

Carlos Slim Helu takes No. 1 spot on Forbes World's Billionaires list as a record 164 10-figure titans return to the ranking amid the global economic recovery.

For the third time in three years, the world has a new richest man.

Riding surging prices of his various telecom holdings, including giant mobile outfit America Movil ( AMX - news - people ), Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim Helu has beaten out Americans Bill Gates and Warren Buffett to become the wealthiest person on earth and nab the top spot on the 2010 Forbes list of the World's Billionaires.

Slim's fortune has swelled to an estimated $53.5 billion, up $18.5 billion in 12 months. Shares of America Movil, of which Slim owns a $23 billion stake, were up 35% in a year.

That massive hoard of scratch puts him ahead of Microsoft ( MSFT - news - people ) cofounder Bill Gates, who had held the title of world's richest 14 of the past 15 years.

Gates, now worth $53 billion, is ranked second in the world. He is up $13 billion from a year ago as shares of Microsoft rose 50% in 12 months. Gates' holdings in his personal investment vehicle Cascade ( CAE - news - people ) also soared with the rest of the markets.

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Here are some pretty amazing charts and stats

15 Mind-Blowing Facts About Wealth And Inequality In America

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[quote="Lucid Memes"]

Bill Gates No Longer World's Richest Man

Carlos Slim Helu takes No. 1 spot on Forbes World's Billionaires list as a record 164 10-figure titans return to the ranking amid the global economic recovery.

For the third time in three years, the world has a new richest man.

Slim's fortune has swelled to an estimated $53.5 billion, up $18.5 billion in 12 months. Shares of America Movil, of which Slim owns a $23 billion stake, were up 35% in a year.

Even with those excellent videos and graphs, it's still difficult to fully grasp the amount of money these people have. It's becoming concentrated into fewer and fewer hands, but the stories of how they deserve to increase their wealth more grow greater and greater.

What I think is interesting, is that in a least America, the stats are very similar to the stats prior to the Great Depression.

Lucid Memes wrote:What I think is interesting, is that in a least America, the stats are very similar to the stats prior to the Great Depression.

Yet all we hear is about how the worst of the economic troubles are over. It seems like we're trying to help the companies become as solvent as possible, while not providing secure, living wages for the middle and working classes. I think one big difference between the last great depression and the coming one is there is a giant media machine we're all plugged into convincing us everything is fine, and sadly, many believe it.

I think the ruling class anticipated an FDR type populous movement occurring out of this massive upward transfer of wealth. Which is why I suspect a lot of their behavior and actions where specifically designed to curb democratic potentials.

Like the bailing out of the US' top banks with taxpayer money. This would put a limit on the types of programs the upcoming government couldn've potentially have done in times of crisis. The bailout IMO was a way of preventing another FDR, who was seen as a traitor to the US economic aristocrats, for all the social programs created for the population (which lifted many from the Great Depression into a skilled middle class).

Also how the media portrayed the health-care bill as a Bolshevik plot and instilled all types of fear in large segments of the population who would've benefited from healthcare. And also the Supreme court's ruling that allows unlimited corporate lobbying (i.e. corruption bribery) in the Judicial and Legislative branches of government. They're consolidating their wealth and are making sure that government officials are in their pockets, and are also funding massive media campaigns aimed at convincing the less wealthy portions of the population that their socio-economic stratification is rightly justified.

Here's more "recovery" news for what many families can expect in the coming year. It's really sad, the amount of complacency by many people makes me think the strongest drug in the world is media. I mean, you're spot on about the media campaign to keep people accepting of their role in life, but really, with peoples' addiction to television, how can you really make change when they're digitally strung out?

By the way, those foreclosure numbers don't represent the amount of homes actually foreclosed on. The banks purposefully are sitting on a lot of the houses in order to avoid a property value free fall.