A Letter to the American Public

Greetings,

I’d like to introduce myself; however, keeping my identity private will allow me to be candid with you. You see, I’m a billionaire and I’d like to have an open and honest discussion with you about my lifestyle, about America and how you fit in.

As I said, I’m a billionaire. Last time I spoke with my accountant, she informed me that I was worth a little over 3.2 billion dollars. Most of that was made on real estate during the past ten years, as well as futures, bonds, gold and stocks – yes, healthcare stocks, oil stocks and pharmaceutical stocks. Last year, I earned just over $287 million dollars from investments, not from a pay check. I don’t get a pay check from a job. Yes, I’m retired. I’ve realized my dream of being retired before age 50.

My income works out to around 24 million dollars a month, or just about $785,000.00 a day, Sunday through Saturday, holidays, weekends – every single day of the year regardless of what I do. And last year, after my deductions, I paid only 18% federal income tax, leaving me a disposable income of around $640,000.00 per day.

Most of my income is re-invested. I acquire more wealth. I would suppose you could say that acquiring more wealth is my job now. The truth is, at a certain point, there just isn’t much I want to buy for myself and family that we don’t all ready have. We have everything we need and much, much more.

I’m not revealing my personal finances to make anyone feel bad, myself feel better or to create negative feelings in any way. My purpose is to let you have a look at something you would otherwise never get to see: the finances of an ultra rich person in American.

There aren’t many billionaires in America. I’m one of only about 350 people. There aren’t really many millionaires as a percentage of population either. In fact, less than 1% of all households in America have an income of a million or more. Another interesting thing: only about 10% of all households have an income of about $200,000 or more, including me and the rest of the billionaires. That percentage is correct if capital gains are included.

Now here is a secret that few people know: the top 10% income earners in America earn 40% of all income. That’s right. About 2.5 million households earn 40% of the income and the other approximately 130 million households split the other 60% of income - 90 million houses earn 50K or less. The average amount of tax paid by the 60% of you that earn less than 200K is around 35%.

For billionaires like me, our average federal income tax is less than 20%.

I tell you this because you may not know the reality here in America.

I will continue to amass wealth. I can’t help it.

After buying all I want and need, there are only two things left for me to do with my money.

The first is own more wealth – income producing possessions which will allow me to make more money. The second is to spend my money in ways that shape the world – on media, on politicians – just to keep things the way they are or to change them in ways I believe they need to change.

If you forced your government to raise my taxes to, say, 50% with no loop holes, do you think I could get by on the $390,000 a day I would be left with?

Would the extra taxes raised help with the deficit? The debt?

I’ll admit, I’d have to make some adjustments – not to my lifestyle, just to how quickly I can amass more wealth and to how hard I influence the world.

Thank you for your time. I hope I’ve given you more information to make more informed decisions about the world you live in.

Anonymous Billionaire