CBS’s Mason: Rich Getting Richer is Good for the Economy

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On Wednesday’s CBS Evening News, correspondent Anthony Mason made an observation rarely expressed in the mainstream media – that when the rich get richer, they do so by creating jobs that benefit everyone. Mason: "Two-thirds of these billionaires are self-made. They're the pioneering businessmen like Bill Gates who created the companies that have created the jobs and the wealth in this country. So we want them to get richer because when they do, we do."

Mason’s comments came after he had filed a report in which he filled in viewers on the staggering amount of wealth that has been lost by the world’s billionaires since last year. After he concluded by pointing out that "the pain of this recession is unrelenting and everywhere – from the bottom all the way to the top," anchor Katie Couric brought up the sentiment of class envy that many feel toward the wealthy, inviting Mason to explain why it is "short-sighted" for people to rejoice in the bad fortunes of the wealthy. Couric: "Having said that, Anthony, a lot of people aren't going to feel real sorry for these folks, even though on average they lost about 25 percent of their wealth. But you say that's shortsighted?"

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Mason explained: "Yeah, because remember, two-thirds of these billionaires are self-made. They're the pioneering businessmen like Bill Gates who created the companies that have created the jobs and the wealth in this country. So we want them to get richer because when they do, we do."

Below is a complete transcript of the report from the Wednesday, March 11, CBS Evening News:

KATIE COURIC: Finally tonight, when Forbes magazine first put out a list of the world's billionaires back in 1987, there were just 96. By last year there were well over 1,000. And then the recession hit. Anthony Mason reports on the new Forbes list just out tonight: Rich man, poorer man.

ANTHONY MASON: Microsoft founder Bill Gates and investor Warren Buffett were again the wealthiest men in the world. But in this economy, even billionaires were playing a losing hand. Forbes magazine in its annual ranking of the world's wealthiest calls it a "Billionaire Bust" – 1,125 made the list of billionaires last year; this year less than 800. The average billionaire worth nearly $4 billion a year ago is now worth $3 billion.

LUISA KROLL, FORBES SENIOR EDITOR: The last time the billionaires around the world were that poor – and obviously I'm a little tongue in cheek when I talk about $3 billion being poor – but was back in 2003.

MASON: And at the top of the list, there was a reshuffling of the deck as Warren Buffett fell out of first place.

KROLL: He had his worst year in the 44 years that he's been running Berkshire Hathaway.

MASON: Buffett, who lost $25 billion, is now worth $37 billion.

KROLL: And Bill Gates reclaims the title of world's richest man, even though he lost $18 billion.

MASON: Among the 20 richest people in the world, only one actually saw his fortunes improve. That was New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg who reinvested in his Bloomberg Network. In all, the U.S. lost 125 billionaires, but still has more than 350. Russia, which had 87, lost nearly two-thirds of those. India, which had 53 last year, is down to 24. So what these numbers show is that the pain of this recession is unrelenting and everywhere – from the bottom all the way to the top, Katie.

COURIC: Having said that, Anthony, a lot of people aren't going to feel real sorry for these folks, even though on average they lost about 25 percent of their wealth.

MASON: Right.

COURIC: But you say that's shortsighted?

MASON: Yeah, because remember, two-thirds of these billionaires are self-made. They're the pioneering businessmen like Bill Gates who created the companies that have created the jobs and the wealth in this country. So we want them to get richer because when they do, we do.

COURIC: All right, Anthony Mason. Thank you, Anthony. And that is the CBS Evening News for tonight. I'm Katie Couric. Thank you for watching. I'll see you back here tomorrow. Good night.

—Brad Wilmouth is a news analyst at the Media Research Center.


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   I would say that the

   I would say that the average person does not begrudge a business person their wealth but is more likely to begrudge celebrities who read a teleprompter and get paid millions.

suddenly,

i feel very average.

 

swing hard in case you hit it.

It's okay puredmashie

Average is good. I tell women I'm average all the time and they always smile at me...or is that hysterical laughter???? Sorry I think I need a moment......no I'm not crying I just got something in my eyes.

~Mmmmmm

got something in my eyes

It's a sexy twinkle, Chevy!

Hope and Change= Despair and Socialism

Thanks for the Moral boost choselife3x

I think I'm ready for a comeback! look out ladies I'm dusting off my tweed jacket, tan corduroy pants and warming up the VEGA!

Heck HC... It's just dust

Heck HC...

It's just dust in the wind....here, have a hankie.

Thanks BT

but I have this strange urge now to listen to "Kansas" I wonder why? :-)

Self-Made

Good article in that it reminds us that most wealth is self-made. Liberals want us to believe that rich people inherited it all from their daddies. That makes it easier to convince voters to take it away from them and redistribute it to the idle class.

There are several factors that motivate liberals and the left. For some it is guilt and self-loathing. Others have never grown up, and want mommy around to tell others to share their toys. Some of them are narcissists that see themselves as natural leaders. Others run on pure envy of the achievers.

Well, now we know the name of the next private citizen...

...that the Obamanista regime will go after.

Sucks to be Anthony Mason, I guess.

Or it soon will be. 

-Dave

This coup has gone on long enough. The time to put it down is NOW.

Rich Getting Richer

After Obama and Democrats policies take effect, the only way to get rich will be by being higher up in the government.

Liberals Golden Rule - We must all suffer equally!

Before we have a government that can supply us with everything we will have a government that can provide us with nothing.

brain... Yep... As they

brain...

Yep...

As they say...that's the plan Stan!

Mason is right.  A few

Mason is right.  A few months ago, one of NB posters (can't remember who) posted the following:

I've never received a job from a poor person.

soooooooooooooo true!

I can understand this idea.

I can understand this idea. But does this money always "trickle down"? Does every instance of rich getting richer mean better for the poor?

bal,

Why don't you put your money where your mouth is.

Quit your job today, and then go out and see if you can get a job from a poor person.

Oh, and be sure to pop in here down the road and let us know how that is workin' out for ya.

-Dave

This coup has gone on long enough. The time to put it down is NOW.

I wasn't trying to point out

I wasn't trying to point out the fallibility of such a notion, more asking a question.

But thanks for not answering. 

bal

Your question showed up as I was writing my post below. Had I seen yours first, I would have put mine as a preliminary answer to your question. What do you think?

Thanks, KC. You're a good

Thanks, KC. You're a good egg.

I agree with a lot of your post. Bloated middle management is the worst. I worked at a lot of companies that had many "VPs" or "Directors" who didn't seem to do anything at all but make things worse and collect a big fat paycheck.

It sounds like you're saying the economy needs some prune juice. :-) 

High praise indeed

Thank you.

Not prune juice. More like Jack Nicholson's Joker - "this town needs an enema!"

I still think Obama could turn this disaster into a goldmine if he signed an executive order demanding one thing: no meetings. Or at least, no more than one meeting a day. Think of how much America could save:

  • Think of the savings in legal pads alone, where the top two pages have doodles, and the rest are thrown away.
  • No more cheap coffee canisters, which alchemize coffee into pavement tar within thrity minutes.
  • No more whiteboards with indecipherable squiggles that no erasers can wipe away.
  • No more Conference Rooms with the video projector that no one knows how to sync.
  • We could get rid of the conference speakerphone in the middle of the table, where everyone in the room has to shout so the people on the phone (usually in traffic) can hear them. You'd have more luck if you opened a window and shouted toward the interstate.

I'm telling you, despite my opposition to his policies on almost every front, if Obama outlawed meetings, I'd vote him president for life.

Wealth's direction

Wealth only flows down. It never flows up. Now to be sure, wealth can start at the top and get stoppered off, so that it never gets to the lower levels. That's what's happened in our economy. But the solution isn't to take money from the only people who can make more of it. The solution is to find out why it isn't flowing down, and open those gates. This economy needs a plumber.

We have all kinds of new blockages that obstruct wealth from flowing down. The cost of doing business is higher. I believe that the rise of a bloated management class has siphoned away wealth that should be rewarding the greater productivity of the workers. The cost of risk has exploded, both legal defense and insurance protection.

Unblocking the flow of wealth down is important, but we can't forget that it does indeed start at the top. This economy depends on entrepreneurs seeking their own self-interest.

Breaking News! CBS Evening News correspondent Anthony Mason

was fired today from CBS News. CBS spokesperson Mary Walter Cronkite said the following:

Anthony Mason's report does not represent the views of Katie Couric, CBS News, President and CEO Leslie Moonves or Chairman Summer Redstone. Mr. Mason's report was not the report that was written and approved by his editors and the Obama White House. Consequently, Mr. Mason was immediately terminated from CBS News.

CBS News and its parent Viacom Corporation believe, as does President Barack Obama, that the rich have gotten richer on the backs of the poor and undocumented immigrants (who by the way pay taxes via their borrowed SS Nos). Only when the majority of wealth of the rich are fairly distributed to the poor, Acorn, labor unions, welfare recipients, people who don't pay income taxes and undocumented immigrants will there be equality and fairness in this country. a country that invaded and killed millions of innocent victims in an unjust war under Bush and Cheney.

End of Statement

---------------------------------------------------------

"There is no longer a media in this country.  There is simply an established propaganda arm for the Democrat Party and any and all who relate to it in any way, elected and unelected." ~ Rush Limbaugh

Amen to that ... rich is

Amen to that ... rich is good. Like a sleaze bag lawyer told me, "the rich get richer, the poor have children'' (out of wedlock, I'll add).

My prediction is that warehouse orders will pickup for the month of March and the recession will end by June. Our next stop massive inflation as the democrats continue to grab at individual wealth and drag us closer to totalitarianism. Then the MSM will really have something to bitch about.

Curious entry on Forbes Billionaire list -- Drug lord?

Fugitive drug lord makes Forbes' billionaire list

Who says crime doesn't pay? A suspected drug lord who is Mexico's most-wanted fugitive made the Forbes list of billionaires on Wednesday with a fortune described as "self made."

The magazine estimates Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman's worth at $1 billion -- No. 701 on the list..

It's an estimate, according to the AP piece in Business Week.. a conservative estimate.

blasphemy I say, blasphemy!

The Rich are Evil... unless of course they are Democrats who care about people. They must be brought down and their money given to the poor they stole it from. So sayeth The One.

</sarc>

Mason on target

When has anyone gotten a job from the poor?  Not all the money that is made by the richest people trickles down, but that which does trickle down is more than none.  None is what we see as the richest are not getting richer.  Mason was right on target; it is completely shortsighted.  I am sure the many people who complain about the rich have no problem taking jobs created by them in some manner.