Patriot Blog Review - "The Rise of Today's Rich and Super-Rich" By Roy C. Smith

Book Review by Nancy . . .


Nancy Adams

This is a review of a book I have not read yet, but I was very impressed with how many misunderstandings about wealth creation have been promoted by the MSM and thought it really worth sharing.

Review by Henry Berry:

In 1982, Forbes magazine began its now much-read annual list of America's richest men and women. At the time of the first list, there were 12 billionaires in the country and fewer than 200,000 millionaires. By the year 2000, there were nearly 300 billionaires and about 5 million millionaires. Smith's account of the rise of the rich and super-rich tells the story of five types of individuals: entrepreneurs, dealmakers, investors, tycoons (corporate executives, who are distinguished from entrepreneurs), and entertainers.

The extraordinary jump in the number of exceptionally wealthy individuals and their growing share of the overall wealth of the United States is attributed to the economic and fiscal policies of the Reagan Administration, which came into office in 1981. Labeled "Reaganomics" by the press, it espoused lower taxes, deregulation, and entrepreneurism. Reagan's approach to government continued into the presidency of Bill Clinton.

Clinton "had never known a bond trader in his life," says the author, but he nevertheless had the sense not to tamper with the robust economic activity he inherited, which was creating fabulous wealth for many and improving the prosperity of an even wider circle of the population. During the Clinton Administration, the technology sector especially stood out for its growth and the numbers of rich and super-rich it produced.

The MSM tries to imply all this category of the new super rich are over compensated corporate executives, called tycoons in this book, when in fact they are the smallest category of the newly rich. The biggest surprise is the vast number of new super rich in the categories of "entertainers" (including sports) and "technology" (including the Internet), who are almost universally critical of the very laws that made them rich. Talk about hypocrisy.