Mike Bloomberg’s fortune went from 4 billion to 27 billion while he was in office. Bloomberg is wealthy enough that he doesn’t have to ever worry about getting his hands dirty with his own security. He can afford all the private security money can buy. It’s a shame he doesn’t understand how wrong it is to interfere with the personal security of the 99% who can’t afford personal bodyguards.
h/t to Cam Edwards of NRA News for the story.
I heard that he will continue to use NYPD for security. True or not he will have armed bodyguards. Another two faced hypocrite.
he should be hiring away his armed security. it’s Kelly that mysteriously wants the taxpayers of NYC to foot his security team for years to come.
Heck,Bloomberg isn’t even the 1%. More like the .0001%.
+1 on resisting the “1%” characterization. The top 1% is very widely distributed in terms of income and wealth, and there’s a huge difference between your doctor (or accountant, dentist, lawyer, owner of a couple of McDonald’s franchises, etc.) and Mike Bloomberg. A lot of us, especially down in the lower half of the top 1%, are on the side of the angels, or at least on the side of human beings having the freedom and the tools to defend themselves.
I’m being a bit tongue-in-cheek using the left’s rhetoric against them. I don’t actually believe in any of that class-warfare BS.
To the extent that wealth is a proxy for class warfare, it is generally the other direction. I have worked with a few billionaires and hectamillionaires (those with net worths above $100 million). Their politics range from liberal Democrat to Marxist (and yes, the irony of someone talking up what a great guy Noam Chomsky is, then going on to the fun he had racing his vintage Ferrari over the weekend is beyond belief). I have known a couple who were somewhat libertarian (none conservative), but of course, once they get really rich, they tend to lose interest in politics or fixing a system that has benefited them so well.
I’m betting when he hires them away from NYPD they will have NO problems getting CCW permits for NYC or anywhere else…
The question that people and a free press – if there was still one in this country) should be asking is just how did his fortune go from 4 to 27 billion while he was a politician.
Yeah… I agree. I’d like to know that myself.
Not to defend him, but he didn’t stop being a businessman while in office.
The use of things like Bloomberg Terminals, and his news site, have gone up significantly over the last 12 years as technology has become even more central to our lives.
In short, it seems likely that he increased his wealth through smart investing, and not through feeding off government (although MAIG has done quite a bit of that).
Something is seriously wrong in America, when the middle class see their wealth decrease in half while the 1% sees their wealth increase monstrously.
:-(
Trust me, these are connected. The big banks and investment firms were bailed out, making Obama’s backers richer; the rest of America got screwed. I don’t see any way to fix this, unfortunately. The mainstream of the Republican Party is in bed with the same crooks.
I knew he was rich, but damn. $27 Billion is a place beyond what most people can even comprehend. $999 million times 27 plus $27 million. Damn.
And what emdfl said – I have not problem with people getting rich, but it seems to happen to politicians way too much these days.
To give you some perspective: if you were not too bright, and had $27 billion, you could invest it in municipal bonds of the state where you live, and earn about 5% a year, with none of that income being taxable. (Be careful what munis you buy–some are private activity bonds, and are taxable.) And what would 5% a year on $27 billion be? While a miserable $1.35 billion a year. The interest on the interest would be $67.5 million a year. The interest on the interest on the interest would be $3.375 million a year. The interest on the interest on the interest on the interest would be $168,750 a year. Most of us could live on that every year very comfortably and have lots left over.