Are They Serious?

John Malone - Liberty Media

Here New-Doom, here WSJ-Google Cache and here FutureofCapitalism

WSJ: What are you doing to protect against the weak American economy?

Mr. Malone: Well, my wife, who is very concerned about these things, moved all her personal cash to Australia and Canada. She wants to have a place to go if things blow up here.Canada has a lot more fiscal and bank responsibility than most places in the world and lots of natural resources.

We have a retreat that's right on the Quebec border. We own 18 miles on the border, so we can cross. Anytime we want to we can get away.

It would probably be illegal but we could go. Actually our snowmobile trail goes right on the border.

Mr. John Malone of Liberty Media, number 400 on the Forbes 500 list, with a net worth of 2.4 Billion, is worried that he might have to ride his snowmobile across his ranch, which has an 18 mile border with Canada, to escape the collapse of the US economy. His wife has been moving her money to Australia and Canada.

I thought this was an Onion spoof when I first read it.

Mr. Malone is worth about 2.4 billion according to Forbes. That's $2,400,000,000. One-half of all US households have total wealth less than 93,100 (2004 - link). Let’s put those numbers together for comparison.

John Malone's wealth --->    2,400,000,000.
Median US Household --->               93,000. ---> 50% of US is less than this.

Mr. Malone's wealth is equal to 25,778 of these median US families.

Mr. Malone was educated and built his fortune in the US. I'm sure he believes he's earned it and is entitled to every penny but the US system played a huge role is his ability to gather wealth. Our educational system, laws, economic and financial structures all made his career possible. If Mr. Malone had been born in the Sudan it is highly unlikely that he would have amassed his fortune. Like it or not he was lucky. The US helped make him. Now, when he thinks things look bleak for his type, the US-Big-Business-Elite, he's ready to cut and run.

I wonder what he thinks about the US kids that went to Canada rather than be sent to Vietnam?