in reply to andrianb, sancochojoe and others
Folks,
thank you for reading my posts. Seriously. Having said that, here we go for the last time on this topic.
adrianb:
After rereading my previous couple of posts on this thread (it is called a thread because one argument leads to the next by some connection of logic) I will agree that I was sloppy in adding the name Gates. Let me try again:
Bill Gates is so excessively rich that he should not be a point of comparison for anyone in the planet, including the other super-rich that live in the U.S. (Buffett, Trump, Perot, Ted Turner, Oprah or whoever). He is lots wealthier than the ultra-nonchopa her majesty Queen Elizabeth of the UK. He cannot be the parameter. An outlier. Breaks all curves. Clear? I was purposefully trying to exclude him from everyone else to avoid minimizing the very real dimension of the wealth of the DR people I mentioned. Gates' extreme personal wealth does not mitigate the fact that there are other very wealthy people around the world that despite being light-years away from the Microsoft chairman in individual net worth can still do all kinds of fancy stuff with their money and never blink to worry re. the cost. If you ignored that some of those people are in fact either Dominican or are based in the DR, then I understand your confusion. I believe that samiam and jon s. have backed up my report that responded to sancochojoe's original question to the board. In fact they added a couple of others that would also fit the parameters of between $100 million and $1 billion. How much, you seem to want to know? You would need to speak with them directly to ascertain the actual figures. Suffice it to say that they've got what it takes to fly around in their private machines, etc and I can assure you that 1 million/yr. does provide for that kind of lifestyle. I would like to add that - unless viewed by an anticapitalist prism (and that's a whole different argument)- those folks are not mafiosi.
sancochojoe:
Speaking of mafiosi, Ramoncito B?ez was born rich. However, not to a mafiosi family. Daddy had beacoup "cuartos" pre-Baninter and they are from one of the so-called "old families"of the DR. Being born to privilege does not mitigate the fact that junior, in apparent boredom with being "just another millionaire", became grandiose/narcissistic and became a criminal to achieve "his dreams" of being in the league of billionaires. He misused and abused other people's money to trade influences at a no-limit poker table. He lost. At least temporarily. The politicos could still figure a way to reactivate him. I digress, sorry. But that's it. Thank you.
-Tordok