AlphaPatriot: Just How Rich?

Just How Rich?

Say Uncle finds this "quote of the day" from Clayton Cramer:



Remember: an income tax isn’t a tax on rich people. It’s a tax on those trying to get rich.



Nice.



But Cramer goes on to make this statement:



I do hope that the Bush campaign makes an issue of how little the Kerrys pay in income taxes--and what hypocrites they are for talking about "Two Americas." There are two Americas, but the gap between George Bush's net worth and mine is a heck of a lot smaller than the gap between George Bush and John Kerry.



"Perhaps in percentage terms, but certainly not in dollar terms," I thought -- so I decided to do a little digging.



According to the Center for Public Integrity, the exact amount that each candidate's assets is worth is not known precisely, but there is a minimum and a maximum so we can get an idea.



Candidate Minimum Assets Maximum Assets

Ralph Nader $4,081,185 $4,916,176

George Bush $7,663,048 $18,904,000

John Edwards $14,283,165 $44,602,000

Dick Cheney $23,913,028 $111,258,000

John Kerry $189,811,467 $747,659,000



Bush's maximum asset valuation is an order of magnitude lower than Kerry's minimum value. His maximum value is almost 40 times less than Kerry's.



Realize, of course, that asset value does not equal net worth because debt is not taken into account. Still, the difference is pretty startling.



Graphically (click for larger image):



CandidateAssetWorthSm.gif