Who do you think is now the richest man in the WORLD, outranking Bill Gates and Warren Buffet? Who owns a MAJOR part of the NEW YORK TIMES? No one from the United States! Surprised?
He is 70-year old Carlos Slim from Mexico City, Mexico, the son of an immigrant shopkeeper. He is a telecom tycoon who has amassed a fortune of $53.5 billion.
Slim owns a telephone company (cell phones and landlines), shopping centers, construction and manufacturing companies, banks, resturants, plus a Sears and Saks store. He is known for wearing inexpensive suits and rarely uses computers, that one of his companies sells, enjoys cigars and diet soft drinks. By trade Slim is a civil engineer, and bought up troubled government-owned companies, fixed them up and resold them for large profits.
Other top 10 billionaires from developing nations include one from India and one from Brazil. Gates and Buffett have made significant donations of wealth lately, which caused them to fall to #2 and #3 on the top 10 list. In January, Slim announced that he was making a $65 million donation for research on cancer, type 2 diabetes and kidney disease in Mexican populations.
Slim said wealth is a responsibility, not a privilege, according to an Associated Press article I read. Some Mexicans say they live in a dog-eat-dog economic system, because more than 50 million of the 107 million people there live in poverty. One Mexican was quoted as saying that Slim's wealth is part of what is wrong with the political system and the corruption in the circles of power that allow there to be few rich and millions of poor people.
Has this information struck a nerve or rang your bell yet? Don't you think of Wall Street millionaires who are ruining the economics in this country? What about the big corporations who pour millions of dollars into the political campaigns to get their "favorites" elected? Now that the Supreme Court just unlocked that loophole in the system by their recent ruling, now foreign corporations can be included in those big donations. What about the woman from one of the largest health insurance companies who recently testified in a congressional hearing and admitted to her salary being $1.3 million. The insurance companies are making millions in profits off the backs of the poor insured in this country.
Ask yourself what's wrong with this country and your answer SHOULD be: the rich are running the economy, the rich are running the insurance industry, the rich are buying lobbyists who put the corruption in congress, and the rich corporations are running the political systems. Why do you think all the AIG executives are getting million dollar bonus's after their govenment bailout?
Remember, the RICH run Wall Street, insurance companies, big banks, big corporations, and more. And the RICH get RICHER!!
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