The World of Americas

Most Wealthy
A Magical Mystery Tour
Who Are the Wealthiest
Americans?
David Koch $19 Billion
Charles Koch $19 Billion
Michael Bloomberg $20
Billion
Christy Walton and Family
$23.2 Billion
Alice Walton $23.2 Billion
S. Robson Walton $23.3
Billion
Jim Walton $23.4 Billion
Lawrence Ellison $27 Billion
Warren Buffet $50 Billion
Bill Gates $57 Billion





114,000 Homes
(at $500,000 apiece)
Enough to purchase
a home for every
man, woman, and
child in Eau Claire,
Chippewa Falls,
and Altoona
combined.
285,000 Harvard Educations
(at $200,000 apiece)
Enough to
educate every
single man,
woman, and child
from Eau Claire,
Chippewa, Dunn,
Pepin, and St.
Croixcounties.
633,333 Porsche 911 Carreras
(at $90,000 apiece)
Enough to buy a
Porsche for every
man, woman, and
child in the city
of Milwaukee
and Eau Claire
and Chippewa
Falls
Of 195 nations in the world
$57 Billion is greater than the GDP of 123 of them.
If you spent $1,000,000 a
day
It would take you more
than 156 years to spend
$57,000,000,000
The Classes
The upper and corporate
classes
Who are the most wealthy?
Characteristics of
individuals in the upper and
corporate classes
Is there an elite ruling
class in the U.S.?
Gilbert-Kahl Model
of Class Structure
(with modifications)*

Capitalist Class
Upper Middle
Class
Middle Class
Working Class
Working Poor
Underclass
Upper Class
Corporate
Class
Poverty Line
Median
Income
Mean
Income
12%
13%
30%
30%
14%
1%
Characteristics of the Upper Class
(Domhoff)
1. A listing in one of the various blue books or the Social
Register
2. Any male member of the family attending one of a
limited number of exclusive prep schools.
3. Any male member of the family belonging to one of the
exclusive social clubs.
4. Any female member of the family belonging to an
exclusive club or attending an exclusive prep school or
5. If the father was a millionaire entrepreneur or $100,000-
a-year corporation executive or corporation lawyer and
the person attended an elite prep school or belonged to
an exclusive club on an extended list of these schools
and clubs.

Characteristics of the Upper
Class (Baltzell)
Descended from a small pool of
successful individuals
Very wealthy (old money).
Attend the same schools and clubs
and tend to intermarry.
Maintain a distinctive style of life
and a high degree of group
solidarity.

Characteristics of the Corporate Class
1. Part of an interpersonal web of relations at the top of
large corporations.
2. Influence is not found in personal wealth (though many
are wealthy) but in control of corporate resources.
3. Members sit on boards of directors of large
corporations.
4. Many have moved in and out of halls of government.
5. Personal interests lie not just with one corporation but
with the structure of corporate concentration as a
whole

How Economic Power Became
Concentrated (How is the Corporate
Class Possible?)
1. Increased size and power
of major corporations.
2. Concentrated control of
stock in major
corporations by other
corporations
3. Network of interlocking
directorates that ties top
corporate personnel
together.
Board of Directors
for Shell Oil
Board of Directors
for Exxon Oil
Interlocking Directorates
Direct Interlock
Board of Directors
for Shell Oil
Board of Directors
for Exxon Oil
Board of Directors
for Coca Cola
Indirect Interlock
Elite Power?
Elite Theory
Functional Elite Theory
Critical Elite Theory
Class Theory
Pluralist Theory
Do We Have A Power Elite?
Domhoff on Elite Power (Do the wealthy have the power to
control us?)
Who Benefits? (Those who own and control the most resources have
the most power.)
Who Governs? (Those who hold the most important positions in
government and other important institutions have the most power.)
Who Wins? (When class conflict occurs, the winning side has more
power.)
Mills on Elite Cohesion (Do the wealthy have common
interests that unify those at the top?)
Social Psychological Mechanisms (Similar backgrounds lead to common
interests.)
Structural Mechanisms (Institutional connections make it easy for the
wealthy to move in and out of institutions.)

Source: Personal Wealth, 2001, (http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-
soi/01pwart.pdf)
Who Benefits?
Who Benefits?
In 2003 the top 1 percent of
households owned 57.5 percent of
corporate wealth, up from 53.4 percent
the year before, according to a
Congressional Budget Office analysis of
the latest income tax data. The top
group's share of corporate wealth has
grown by half since 1991, when it was
38.7 percent.
New York Times (January 29, 2006)

Returns Filed Net Income (less deficit) Total Assets
Number Percent
Amount
(thousands)
Percent Amount (thousands) Percent

All Returns
5,135,591 100.00% $603,623,352 100% $49,154,424,202 100%
Corporations
with Asset Size
of
$250 million or
more 10,989 0.21% $523,697,237 87% $44,244,445,826 90%
Corporations
with Asset Size
of
$2,500 million
or more
1,896 0.04% $417,202,231 69% $36,839,631,626 75%
Source: Internal Revenue Service Statistics of Income, Returns of Active Corporations, September
2004. Latest available figures are for tax year 2001 based on returns with accounting periods ending
July 2001 through June 2002 and posted to the Internal Revenue Service Business Master File from
the beginning of July 2001 through the end of June 2003.

Corporation Assets and Income:
Relatively Few Corporations Have Most Income and
Assets

Cabi net
Member Posi ti on Educati on Net Worth
Mel Mart inez
Secret ary of Housing and
Urban Development Florida St at e Univ. $1.3-$3.2 Million
Ant hony Principi
Secret ary of Vet eran
Affairs
U.S. Naval Academy
Set on Hall Univ. $1.3-$3.2 Million
Elaine Chao Secret ary of Labor
Mount Holyoke
Harvard $1.3-$3.2 Million
Norman Minet a
Secret ary of
Transport at ion UC Berkeley
Spencer Abraham Secret ary of Energy
Michigan St at e
Harvard $325,000-$675,000
Ann Veneman Secret ary of Agricult ure
UC Davis
UC Berkeley
Hast ings College of Law $680,000-$2 Million
Don Evans Commerce Secret ary Univ. of Texas $10-$47 Million
Roderick Paige Secret ary of Educat ion
Jackson St at e Univ. (BA)
Indiana Univ. (MA & PhD) $1.1-$2.9 Million
Colin Powell Secret ary of St at e
Cit y College of New York (BS)
George Washingt on Univ.
(MBA) $14-$66 Million
Donald Rumsfeld Secret ary of Defense Princet on BA $62-$116 Million
Tommy Thompson
Secret ary of Healt h and
Human Services UW-Madison BS and JD $1.5-$3-6 Million
Gale Nort on Secret ary of t he Int erior Universit y of Denver BA and JD
Paul O'Neill Secret ary of t he Treasury
Fresno St at e BA
U of Indiana MA
George Washingt on Universit y $67-$253 Million
John Ashcroft At t orney General
Yale BA
Universit y of Chicago JD $1.5-$3.3 Million
Bush Cabinet Appointees
Social Psychological
Mechanisms
The 10 Private High Schools That Sent the Highest Percentage of Their
Graduates to Harvard, Yale, or Princeton, 1998-2001
School Type Location HYP % Tuition
Ave. Grad.
Class Size
Roxbury Latin School boys West Roxbury, MA 21.1 $14,000 50
Brearley School girls New York, NY 20.9 $22,850 44
Collegiate School boys New York, NY 20 $22,300 53
Groton School coed Groton, MA 17.9 $24,115 84
Dalton School coed New York, NY 17.6 $23,200 110
Spence School girls New York, NY 17.2 $20,700 42
Horace Mann School coed Bronx, NY 16.8 $22,980 158
Winsor School girls Boston, MA 16.7 $22,600 54
Milton Academy coed Milton, MA 15.8 $22,950 172
Phillips Andover coed Adover, MA 15.7 $22,160 266
HYP percent is the percent of student who went to Harvard, Yale or Princeton.
Source: Domhoff, G. William. 2006. Who Rules America, 5th Ed.p. 53
Source: Kerbo 2005.

Definition of
Income
Lowest
quintile
Second
quintile
Third
quintile
Fourth
quintile
Highest
quintile
Income before taxes 3.6 9 14.8 23 49.7
Less government
money transfers,
capital gains
1.1 7.1 13.9 22.8 55.1
Income after taxes 1.4 8.3 15.1 24 51.2
Who Wins? Shares of
Aggregate Income by Income
Definition (2000)
Problems with Corporate
Interlocks
Reduces competition between
corporations
Represents outside influences over the
corporation
Provides a means of sharing
information about corporate plans and
operations
Helps provide unity among top
corporate officials in the economy
Helps provide unity in corporate
dealings with the government
Pluralist Model
Potential power is widely scattered
throughout society.
At least some resources are available
to everyone.
At any time the amount of potential
power exceeds the amount of actual
power.
Characteristics of Pluralism
Power comes from many sources
These groups are politically autonomous (independent)
and can work for any desired outcome.
There is much competition between groups that tends
to cancel out the overall power of any one particular
group.
These political groups are open (not closed) and
constantly evolving.
Most groups rely on public opinion as a vital resource in
fulfilling their agenda.
There is widespread agreement with regards to the
rules of the game (voting laws, rights to vote, majority
rule, etc.) which holds the overall system together.
Group Activity on Poverty and the Distribution
of Resources
What do you consider a right as opposed to a privilege?
What responsibility, if any does the government have to the
poor; that is, should there be government programs to help the
poor?
Do the rich have a greater obligation to help/support the poor
through things such as higher taxes, hiring the poor to work in
their businesses, etc?
What, if anything, will you do to solve the freerider problem?
How much inequality of condition, if any, will be tolerated in
your plan?
Will you allow inheritance of resources?
Will you distinguish between the worthy poor and the unworthy
poor?