Doug Henwood wrote:
> Even today's rentiers often put in 10-12 hour
> days at trading desks. As far as I know, pure coupon-clippers aren't a
> significant social force.
Query: Aren't pure or at leas semi-pure coupon clippers a significant source of cash for right-wing (and liberal) think-tanks, conferences, even politicians? I don't have a recent Forbes list of the rich, but if as it seems they are now listing only billionaires, their list is less useful than it used to be. A particularly useful part of their list of the 400 richest was in the back of the book: a list of *families* that were collectively very rich but not rich enough (at least as far as Forbes could tell) to make the list of 400 as individuals. A list merely of the top billionaires I suspect really obscures the membership of the ruling class, which I suspect still includes many families whose family wealth is at present insufficient to get them in. Even in the day of $90 billion Bill, a closely knit family with (say) a net worth of 300 million is not to be sneezed at as a social force. And if Bill wields the same power, it would be as much due to his family background (not very poor) as to his new immense wealth: that family background would admit him easily to circles which the $90 billion would only force the door of. We need a new issue of Domway.
Carrol