I remember I was in grade school, the fourth grade, in a free reading period in the library. Someone in my class found a copy of the Forbes 400, a list of the richest people in America, and my dad's name was on it.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
In the Eisenhower era, when earnings over $400,000 were subject to 91 percent taxes and the world was a smaller place, you could count the truly wealthy on one hand: Getty, Dupont, Mellon, Rockefeller, though even those fortunes were being dispersed to children as the old robber barons died off.
Every morning I get up and look through the Forbes list of the richest people in America. If I'm not there, I go to work.
Every day I get up and look through the Forbes list of the richest people in America. If I'm not there, I go to work.
If past history was all there was to the game, the richest people would be librarians.
I read 'Time', 'Newsweek' and 'The Economist'.
Better the rudest work that tells a story or records a fact, than the richest without meaning.
My mom used to tell me that the most valuable thing she owned was her library card. We were poor, but that's not what she was talking about. My mom knew that education opened doors and opened minds.
The smartest billionaires I know never finished high school. I got my degree and my doctorate on the street and an advanced degree in jail.
I graduated from high school in 1963. There were no computers, cell phones, Internet, credit cards, cassette tapes or cable TV.
My dad sold encyclopedias and my mom worked in a factory office.