Being Wealthy, Becoming wealthy

THE EIGHTY FIVE WEALTHIEST people in the world have a combined wealth of somewhat more than one trillion American dollars. Their combined wealth is equal to the combined wealth of half the world; the poorer half. Eighty five people whose wealth is equal to three and a half billion people. Meanwhile, the world's top one percent, in terms of wealth, control roughly one half of the world's total wealth. One per cent of the population, in control of fifty per cent of the world's wealth. To top it all off, sudies indicate that taxes on the world's wealthiest people have been steadily declining for several decades. It would seem that Ronald Reagan's (U.S. President, 1981-1989) dream of a globle trickle down economy, with the wealthy "producers" allowed to "produce", unhindered by such annoying inconveniences as national governments or their burdensome taxes, has come to fruition. We, as a global civilization, have accepted, so it seems, the concept that anybody who is extremely wealthy deserves to be, and deserves to be unhindered in producing wealth, which, according to "Reagonomics" will, eventually, somehow, "trickle down" to the rest of us. (We're still waiting). No trickle down phenomenon is yet observable. But stay tuned. You never know. It could still happen. As for the world's billions of impoverished? They, according to Ronald Reagan, are precisely where they deserve to be, in poverty, by virtue of their own lack of intelligence, or lack of hard work. Or something like that. Maybe the wealth will begin to trickle down, at long last. Or better yet, maybe the world's poor people will suddenly become intelligent, and hard working, and thus extremely wealthy. Seven billion mansions, all in heavily guarded, gated communities! (One must protect one's wealth.)