Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Spend Like a Rich Man

This article has a very interesting discussion of how the very-rich (net worth in excess of $25Million) spend their money each year.  Essentially they spend money on their cars, houses, and trips.  Oh, and something not mentioned by the article, they GIVE.  LOTS.  See the very interesting chart below.  I find the giving very interesting b/c Americans are constantly told that the rich don't care about anybody else, that they got rich by basically being terrible.  You know, maybe not.

There is this theory called "crowding out" and it is the idea that as government takes more responsibility than private citizens take less - due to two reasons.  First, they simply have less money as government takes taxes to pay for the "charity".  Second, private citizens see reduced need.  Right or wrong, something about human nature likes to be needed.  To me, the great amount of giving by the wealthy is a very positive sign.

 

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