How Patriotic Is Your Average Billionaire?

One billion is a thousand millions.

Sometimes I think that the financial crisis we are supposed to be facing is all a big Bush hoax. Like the WMD’s. I have no way of knowing for sure, of course. I just have zero faith in our political “leaders.”

If things are as bad as they say, and an infusion of $700 billion is really needed. I know a place to find all that money.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the Billionaires of the United States of America (By my rough estimate, I’d say that there is about a billion of them). I’d say they could afford contributing a little bit toward saving the nation from financial collapse. I’d even support giving them a tax break for a charitable contribution. After all, think of how much money our financial system has given to them. Bush's tax breaks probably didn't hurt them, as well. Shouldn’t they give something to help save it? Maybe they could organize really huge bake sales.

If things are as bad as they say, why are most of these people virtually silent about “our” crisis? (Rank refers to their ranking in the list of "The World's Billionaires.")

Rank    Name   Age Net Worth ($Bil)

1 Warren Buffett  77 62.0
3 William Gates III 52 58.0
12 Sheldon Adelson  74 26.0
14 Lawrence Ellison 63 25.0
26 Christy Walton  53 19.2
26 Jim Walton  60 19.2
26 S Robson Walton  64 19.2
29 Alice Walton  58 19.0
32 Sergey Brin  34 18.7
33 Larry Page  35 18.6
37 Charles Koch  72 17.0
37 David Koch  67 17.0
40 Michael Dell  43 16.4
41 Paul Allen  55 16.0
41 Kirk Kerkorian  90 16.0
43 Steven Ballmer  52 15.0
43 Abigail Johnson  46 15.0
46 Carl Icahn  72 14.0
46 Forrest Mars Jr  76 14.0
46 Jacqueline Mars  68 14.0
46 John Mars  71 14.0
46 Jack Taylor  85 14.0
56 Donald Bren  75 13.0
62 Anne Cox Chambers 88 12.6
65 Michael Bloomberg 66 11.5
68 George Kaiser  65 11.0
73 Philip Knight  70 10.4
77 Edward Johnson III 77 10.0
87 Charles Ergen  55 9.5
87 John Kluge  93 9.5
87 Ronald Perelman  65 9.5
97 George Soros  77 9.0
102 James Goodnight  65 8.7
104 Donald Newhouse  78 8.5
104 Samuel Newhouse Jr 80 8.5
109 Rupert Murdoch  77 8.3
110 Jeffrey Bezos  44 8.2
113 Leonard Blavatnik 50 8.0
117 Dan Duncan  75 7.9
120 Pierre Omidyar  40 7.7
125 Philip Anschutz  68 7.4
127 John Menard Jr  68 7.3
136 Harold Simmons  76 6.9
137 Steven Cohen  52 6.8
137 Sumner Redstone  84 6.8
142 Eric Schmidt  52 6.6
145 Eli Broad  74 6.5
145 Stephen Schwarzman 61 6.5
154 James Kennedy  60 6.3
154 Blair Parry-Okedon 57 6.3
158 Robert Rowling  54 6.2
164 David Geffen  65 6.0
164 Samuel Zell  66 6.0
177 Charles Schwab  70 5.6
178 Robert Bass  60 5.5
178 Henry Kravis  64 5.5
178 George Roberts  64 5.5
178 James Simons  70 5.5
189 Micky Arison  58 5.4
189 Steven Jobs  53 5.4
203 Robert Holding  81 5.0
214 Patrick McGovern 70 4.7
214 David Murdock  84 4.7
222 Lester Crown  82 4.6
227 William Cook  76 4.5
227 William Davidson        85 4.5
227 Charles Johnson  75 4.5
227 Stephen Ross  67 4.5
227 Paul Milstein  85 4.5
236 John Sall  58 4.4
236 Whitney MacMillan 79 4.4
236 Marion MacMillan Pictet 76 4.4
236 P.MacMillan Keinath 76 4.4
236 Cargill MacMillan Jr 80 4.4
236 John MacMillan III 80 4.4
236 Harold Hamm  62 4.4
247 Henry Ross Perot        77 4.3
253 Ralph Lauren  68 4.2
256 Leonard Stern  69 4.1
256 Ty Warner  64 4.1
260 Leon Black  57 4.0
260 Ray Dalio  58 4.0
260 Herbert Kohler  69 4.0
260 Joan Tisch  82 4.0
260 Ray Hunt  65 4.0
277 George Lucas  63 3.9
277 Stephen Wynn  66 3.9
284 John Simplot  99 3.8
284 Rupert Johnson Jr 66 3.8
288 Richard DeVos  82 3.7
288 Gordon Moore  79 3.7
288 Steven Udvar-Hazy 62 3.7
296 Bradley Hughes  74 3.6
296 Richard Schulze  67 3.6
296 Daniel Och  47 3.6
296 John Sobrato  68 3.6
307 Robert Ziff  41 3.5
307 Ray Dolby  75 3.5
307 Bruce Kovner  63 3.5
307 Ira Rennert  74 3.5
307 Dirk Ziff  43 3.5
307 Daniel Ziff  36 3.5
307 Patrick Soon-Shiong 56 3.5
307 Edward Lampert  45 3.5
307 Stanley Druckenmiller 54 3.5
307 Ronald Burkle  55 3.5
307 Riley Bechtel  55 3.5
307 Stephen Bechtel Jr 82 3.5
327 Haim Saban  63 3.4
327 Dennis Washington 73 3.4
334 David Bonderman  65 3.3
334 Paul Tudor Jones II 53 3.3
334 Peter Kellogg  65 3.3
334 Leonard Lauder  75 3.3
334 Evgeny Shvidler  44 3.3
349 Edgar Bronfman Sr 78 3.2
349 Ronald Lauder  64 3.2
349 George Mitchell  88 3.2
358 Min Kao   59 3.1
358 A Jerrold Perenchio 77 3.1
358 Carl Pohlad  92 3.1
368 Lee Bass  51 3.0
368 Richard LeFrak  62 3.0
368 T Boone Pickens  79 3.0
368 Donald Trump  61 3.0
368 Ronda Stryker  53 3.0
368 Steven Spielberg        61 3.0
368 Donald Schneider        72 3.0
368 Richard Rainwater 63 3.0
368 John Paulson  52 3.0
368 Henry Hillman  89 3.0
368 Sid Bass  65 3.0
368 Kenneth Griffin  39 3.0
368 Diane Hendricks  61 3.0
396 Richard Kinder  63 2.9
412 James Coulter  48 2.8
412 Ann Walton Kroenke 58 2.8
412 Aubrey McClendon        48 2.8
412 Tom Ward  48 2.8
412 T Denny Sanford  72 2.8
412 Mitchell Rales  51 2.8
428 David Gottesman  81 2.7
428 B. Piasecka Johnson 71 2.7
428 Roger Penske  71 2.7
428 E Stanley Kroenke 60 2.7
428 Thomas Pritzker  57 2.7
428 Glen Taylor  66 2.7
428 David Rockefeller Sr 92 2.7
446 Steven Rales  56 2.6
446 Amos Hostetter Jr 71 2.6
446 Melvin Simon  81 2.6
446 Mark Cuban  49 2.6
446 Clemmie Spangler Jr 75 2.6
446 Leslie Wexner  70 2.6
462 David Shaw  56 2.5
462 Oprah Winfrey  54 2.5
462 David Sun  57 2.5
462 Robert Rich Jr  67 2.5
462 Penny Pritzker  48 2.5
462 Michael Milken  61 2.5
462 Craig McCaw  58 2.5
462 Theodore Lerner  82 2.5
462 Malcolm Glazer  79 2.5
462 Victor Fung  62 2.5
462 David Filo  41 2.5
462 Charles Dolan  81 2.5
462 David Rubenstein        58 2.5
462 Jim Davis  64 2.5
462 Daniel D'Aniello        61 2.5
462 William Conway Jr 58 2.5
462 Charles Brandes  65 2.5
462 Franklin Booth Jr 84 2.5
462 Edward Bass  63 2.5
462 Leonore Annenberg 90 2.5
462 Lynn Schusterman        69 2.5
462 Wilma Tisch  80 2.5
462 John Tu   68 2.5
503 Frank Batten Sr  81 2.4
503 Gordon Getty  74 2.4
503 H Wayne Huizenga        70 2.4
503 Charles Munger  84 2.4
503 Daniel Pritzker  49 2.4
503 Jay Robert Pritzker 43 2.4
503 Linda Pritzker  54 2.4
503 Karen Pritzker  50 2.4
503 Jean (Gigi) Pritzker 46 2.4
503 James Pritzker  56 2.4
503 Anthony Pritzker 47 2.4
503 Nancy Walton Laurie 56 2.4
503 William R. Hearst III 58 2.4
503 Matthew Bucksbaum 82 2.4
524 William Hilton  80 2.3
524 Robert E "Ted" Turner 69 2.3
524 Jerry Yang  39 2.3
524 Charles Butt  70 2.3
524 Thomas Barrack  60 2.3
524 Mortimer Zuckerman 70 2.3
524 Albert Ueltschi  90 2.3
524 Edward Roski Jr  69 2.3
524 Martha Ingram  72 2.3
524 Carl Lindner Jr  88 2.3
524 John Pritzker  55 2.3
553 John Anderson  90 2.2
553 Imogene Powers Johnson 78 2.2
553 Marilyn Carlson Nelson 68 2.2
553 Alfred Mann  82 2.2
553 Mary A.Dorrance Malone 58 2.2
553 John Malone  67 2.2
553 Omid Kordestani  44 2.2
553 Winnie Johnson-Marquart 48 2.2
553 Helen Johnson-Leipold 51 2.2
553 S Curtis Johnson        52 2.2
553 H Fisk Johnson  49 2.2
553 Phillip Frost  71 2.2
553 Barbara Carlson Gage 65 2.2
553 Tom Gores  43 2.2
553 Jess Jackson  78 2.2
573 S Daniel Abraham        83 2.1
573 A. A. "Red" Emmerson 78 2.1
573 David Hearst Jr  62 2.1
573 Jon Stryker  49 2.1
573 Phillip Ruffin  73 2.1
573 Nicholas Pritzker II 64 2.1
573 Clayton Mathile  67 2.1
573 James Leprino  70 2.1
573 George Hearst Jr 80 2.1
573 Austin Hearst  55 2.1
573 Bennett Dorrance 59 2.1
573 Neil Bluhm  70 2.1
573 John Catsimatidis 59 2.1
573 Phoebe Hearst Cooke 81 2.1
605 J Christopher Flowers 50 2.0
605 Thomas Lee  63 2.0
605 Frederik GH Meijer 88 2.0
605 Gary Burrell  70 2.0
605 Herbert Allen Jr        68 2.0
605 William Wrigley Jr 44 2.0
605 David Tepper  49 2.0
605 R Allen Stanford        58 2.0
605 Jerry Speyer  67 2.0
605 Sheldon Solow  79 2.0
605 Frederick Smith  63 2.0
605 Peter Peterson  81 2.0
605 Alan Casden  62 2.0
605 Margaret Magerko        42 2.0
605 Leslie Lampton  83 2.0
605 Joshua Harris  43 2.0
605 James Jannard  58 2.0
605 William Koch  68 2.0
652 Thomas Frist Jr  69 1.9
652 Donald Hall  79 1.9
652 Joseph Mansueto  51 1.9
652 Pat Stryker  51 1.9
652 Thomas Siebel  55 1.9
652 Henry Samueli  53 1.9
652 Michael Jaharis  79 1.9
652 Maurice Greenberg 82 1.9
677 Stewart Rahr  62 1.8
677 Kenneth Fisher  57 1.8
677 Jon Huntsman  70 1.8
677 Henry Nicholas III 48 1.8
677 George Lindemann        71 1.8
677 Alexander Knaster 49 1.8
677 David Green  66 1.8
677 William Connor II 58 1.8
677 Kavitark Ram Shriram 51 1.8
677 Dean White  84 1.8
677 Amar Bose  78 1.8
707 John Sperling  87 1.7
707 Peter Sperling  48 1.7
707 A Alfred Taubman        84 1.7
707 Michael Krasny  54 1.7
707 James Kim  72 1.7
707 Timothy Headington 57 1.7
707 Philip Falcone  45 1.7
707 L John Doerr  57 1.7
707 Edward Debartolo Jr 61 1.7
707 Louis Bacon  52 1.7
707 George Argyros  71 1.7
707 Edmund Ansin  72 1.7
707 Wilbur Ross Jr  70 1.7
707 Michael Price  55 1.7
707 Robert McNair  71 1.7
707 Richard Marriott        69 1.7
707 John Marriott Jr        75 1.7
743 Roger Wang  58 1.6
743 Peter Buck  77 1.6
743 John Calamos  67 1.6
743 John J Fisher  46 1.6
743 Alan Gerry  78 1.6
743 Marguerite Harbert 84 1.6
743 Stanley Stub Hubbard 74 1.6
743 Irwin Jacobs  74 1.6
743 Phyllis Taylor  66 1.6
743 Walter Scott Jr  76 1.6
743 Bernard Saul II  75 1.6
743 Ernest Rady  70 1.6
743 Richard Peery  67 1.6
743 Igor Olenicoff  65 1.6
743 John Morgridge  74 1.6
743 Bernard Marcus  78 1.6
743 Randal Kirk  54 1.6
743 Brad Kelley  51 1.6
743 Michael Ilitch  78 1.6
743 Richard Hayne  60 1.6
743 B Thomas Golisano 66 1.6
743 Thomas Friedkin  72 1.6
743 Fred DeLuca  60 1.6
785 Trevor Rees-Jones 57 1.5
785 Fayez Sarofim  79 1.5
785 Todd Wagner  47 1.5
785 Andrew Beal  55 1.5
785 Ronald Baron  64 1.5
785 John Arrillaga  70 1.5
785 John Arnold  34 1.5
785 Roland Arnall  68 1.5
785 Dennis Albaugh  58 1.5
785 John Abele  71 1.5
785 Mark Zuckerberg  23 1.5
785 Theodore Waitt  45 1.5
785 Billy Joe McCombs 80 1.5
785 Thomas Marsico  53 1.5
785 Randolph Lerner  46 1.5
785 Norma Lerner  71 1.5
785 Nancy Lerner  47 1.5
785 Marc Lasry  48 1.5
785 Jerome Kohlberg Jr 82 1.5
785 Vinod Khosla  53 1.5
785 Hamilton James  56 1.5
785 Jorge Perez  58 1.5
785 William Moncrief Jr 87 1.5
785 Gary Michelson  59 1.5
785 Joseph Jamail Jr        82 1.5
785 Jeremy Jacobs Sr        68 1.5
785 Jeffrey Hildebrand 49 1.5
785 Alec Gores  55 1.5
785 Christopher Goldsbury 65 1.5
785 Israel Englander 60 1.5
785 Bharat Desai  55 1.5
785 John Brown  73 1.5
785 Joseph Steinberg        64 1.5
785 Tamir Sapir  60 1.5
785 David Rich  63 1.5
785 Marc Rich  73 1.5
785 Marc Rowan  46 1.5
843 Louis Gonda  59 1.4
843 Anne Windfohr Marion 68 1.4
843 Robert McLane Jr        71 1.4
843 Robert Day  64 1.4
843 James Clark  64 1.4
843 Carl Berg  70 1.4
843 Robert Friedland        57 1.4
843 Arthur Williams Jr 65 1.4
843 Sanford Weill  75 1.4
843 Richard Scaife  75 1.4
843 Patrick Ryan  70 1.4
843 Leandro Rizzuto  70 1.4
843 James France  63 1.4
843 William Fisher  50 1.4
843 Robert Fisher  54 1.4
843 Richard Egan  72 1.4
843 James Dinan  49 1.4
843 Howard Marks  61 1.4
843 Tracy Krohn  53 1.4
843 Jerral Jones  65 1.4
843 Bruce Karsh  53 1.4
843 Robert Kraft  66 1.4
897 George Steinbrenner III 77 1.3
897 Ernest Stempel  91 1.3
897 Henry Swieca  51 1.3
897 S Truett Cathy  87 1.3
897 Herbert Simon  73 1.3
897 Herbert Siegel  79 1.3
897 Walter Shorenstein 93 1.3
897 Steven Roth  66 1.3
897 Barry Rosenstein        49 1.3
897 Julian Robertson Jr 76 1.3
897 Nelson Peltz  65 1.3
897 Glenn Dubin  51 1.3
897 Barry Diller  66 1.3
897 Ian M Cumming  67 1.3
897 Scott Cook  55 1.3
897 Daniel Snyder  43 1.3
897 Margaret Whitman        51 1.3
897 Charlotte Colket Weber 65 1.3
897 Hope Hill van Beuren 74 1.3
897 Kenny Troutt  60 1.3
897 Robert Naify            86 1.3
897 Michael Moritz  53 1.3
897 Thomas Hicks  62 1.3
897 Michael Heisley Sr 71 1.3
897 William Gross  63 1.3
897 Mario Gabelli  65 1.3
897 Lorenzo Fertitta        39 1.3
897 Frank Fertitta III 46 1.3
897 David Duffield  67 1.3
897 Timothy Blixseth        57 1.3
897 Arthur Blank  65 1.3
897 Stephen Bisciotti 47 1.3
897 Thomas Bailey  71 1.3
962 Arturo Moreno  61 1.2
962 Michael Novogratz 43 1.2
962 J Joseph Ricketts 66 1.2
962 Thomas Steyer  50 1.2
962 O Bruton Smith  81 1.2
962 Rajendra Singh  53 1.2
962 Richard Perry  53 1.2
962 Joyce Raley Teel        77 1.2
962 Wesley Edens  46 1.2
962 Leon G Cooperman        64 1.2
962 Richard Chilton  50 1.2
962 Stephen Case  49 1.2
962 Peter Briger Jr  44 1.2
962 Marc Benioff   43 1.2
962 Jerry Zucker   58 1.2
962 Samuel Wyly  72 1.2
962 Peter Thiel  40 1.2
962 William Kellogg  64 1.2
962 George Joseph  86 1.2
962 Johnelle Hunt  76 1.2
962 Marvin Herb  71 1.2         
962 Pincus Green  72 1.2
962 Thomas Flatley  75 1.2
962 John Edson  75 1.2
1014 Sidney Kimmel  80 1.1
1014 Peter Lewis  74 1.1
1014 Gary Magness  54 1.1
1014 Dwight Opperman  85 1.1
1014 Peter Nicholas  66 1.1
1014 Marc Nathanson  62 1.1
1014 Leonard Litwin  93 1.1
1014 Arthur Rock  81 1.1
1014 Michael Eisner  66 1.1
1014 Mary Anselmo  79 1.1
1014 Mary West  62 1.1
1014 Gary West  62 1.1
1014 Alfred West Jr  65 1.1
1014 Norman Waitt Jr  53 1.1
1014 Oakleigh Thorne  75 1.1
1014 Alexander Spanos        84 1.1
1014 Charles Simonyi  60 1.1
1014 Dorrance Hamilton 79 1.1
1014 Leslie Gonda  87 1.1
1014 Paul Fireman  64 1.1
1062 Lynne Pasculano  66 1.0
1062 Edward Watkins Jr  72 1.0    
1062 Richard Farmer  73 1.0
1062 Theodore Forstmann 68 1.0
1062 Jeffrey Gendell  49 1.0
1062 Robert Johnson  61 1.0
1062 Teresa F Heinz Kerry 69 1.0
1062 John P Manning  60 1.0
1062 Joseph Benvenuti        87 1.0
1062 Carol Jenkins Barnett 51 1.0 
1062 Lee Ainslie III  44 1.0
1062 Marvin L "Buzz" Oates 84 1.0
1062  Roger Milliken  92 1.0            
1062 Lowell Milken  59 1.0
1062 L Lowry Mays  72 1.0
1062 Barbara Hall Marshall 84 1.0
1062 Donald Marron  73 1.0                        
1062 Richard Manoogian 71 1.0
1062  Stephen Mandel  52 1.0
1062 Stephen Karp  67 1.0
1062 Daniel Gilbert  46 1.0
1062 Paul Foster  50 1.0
1062 Stephen Feinberg 48 1.0
1062 Jim Thompson  68 1.0
1062 Elizabeth Ann Hall Reid 85 1.0

If the financial crisis is real and actually exists, wouldn’t all of these billionaires want to help put a stop to it? How many have offered their services? Their money? None that I know of. If the financial crisis is real and actually exists, where will they put all of their money after the big collapse? Why, there will be nothing left but bargains for them to make even more money.

I’d be willing to bet my billions that Congress has been hoodwinked again (just like with Iraq) and that there is no real financial crisis. Bush just wants to shuffle money to some rich people. Either that or the man is insane, and he is just messing with us all.

What do you think? Would most of these people even miss a billion dollars?

Update:
From Let Risk-Taking Financial Institutions Fail by Ari J. Officer and Lawrence H. Officer:

Follow the money. Average Joes and Janes are not the holders of the other side of complicated, over-the-counter derivatives contracts. Rather, hedge funds are the main holders. The bailout will involve a transfer of wealth — from the American people to financial institutions engaging in reckless speculation — that will be the greatest in history.