Would it surprise you to learn that the net worth of the 70 richest delegates in China's National People's Congress averages out to more than $1 billion per delegate? We're talking about a government that say's it's Communist, you know, everybody's equal?
Certain members of the press - like the NY Times columnist Thomas Friedman - love the Chinese Communist system. You know, the leadership says "jump" and the people ask "how high?" Well, those in control apparently have been saving their pennies and - who knew - in the land of equality some appear to be much, much more equal than others. Please note that in the US, while a lot of people in government are rich, they are not rich by People's Republic standards.
But we're getting there. From the Wall Street Journal
Earlier this month the Washington Post's Carol Leonnig reported that the former vice president's wealth is today estimated at $100 million, up from less than $2 million when he left government service on a salary of $181,400. How did he make this kind of money? It wasn't his share of the Nobel Peace Prize. Nor was it the book and movie proceeds from "An Inconvenient Truth."
Instead, as Ms. Leonnig reports, "Fourteen green-tech firms in which Gore invested received or directly benefited from more than $2.5 billion in loans, grants and tax breaks, part of President Obama's historic push to seed a U.S. renewable-energy industry with public money."
It helps to have friends in high places. And the workers? Not so much.
The Post story mentions one of the beneficiaries of Mr. Gore's investment acumen, Milwaukee-based Johnson Controls, which won a $299 million award from the federal government in 2009 to make electric-car batteries. Here's how that worked out:
"The company has dramatically scaled back, after executives concluded demand for electric cars was far lower than the administration forecast. The factory outfitted with stimulus funds is nearly idle, and plans to build a second plant have been postponed."
And the Big "O" himself?
When the history of this administration is written, maybe someone will note the dissonance between the president's hip persona and his retro ideology. Here was a man who promised a "transformative" presidency. Yet when transformation came, it amounted to a two-pronged attempt to impose, from one side, a version of European social democracy by way of ObamaCare, and from the other side a version of Chinese state-directed "capitalism" by way of the stimulus.
As a political matter it may have been Mr. Obama's good luck that the bankruptcy of both models became obvious only after he had gotten his way legislatively on both. Yet the president's sagging fortunes have everything to do with his buying into an ideological enthusiasm too late. In a different age, Mr. Obama would have been the guy who went out and bought an Edsel. In this age, Mr. Obama is the guy demanding that you buy an Edsel, too. That car is today called the Volt.
Many years ago when I was a kid, I had a friend whose parents knew people in Mexico. When Kennedy was elected the Mexicans commented that we were lucky that Kennedy was already rich. In Mexico the road to "real" wealth was to win the Presidency which meant that you controlled the graft and were assured of becoming a billionaire. It appears that Mexico was simply a generation ahead of us.
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