Hard times? Recession? Penny-pinching? Not for everyone.
While you've been clipping coupons, the number of billionaires has grown this year -- further proof the downtown is turning up. Forbes tells us there are now 1,011 billionaires in the world, up from 793 a year ago.
Five members of the SC Johnson family were named once again to Forbes Magazine's list of the world's billionaires. In the words of Forbes: "Recession isn't dirtying up the Johnson family fortune as consumers continue to buy their household staples..."
While their inclusion on the billionaires list is no surprise to the Johnsons -- they've been there before -- Forbes nonetheless reports good news on their behalf. They have moved up in the rankings to 463rd -- up 13 places from 476 last year. Best yet, their net worth is listed at $2.1 billion each -- up from $1.9 billion last year. (But all good news is relative: Two years ago Forbes reported their net was $2.2 billion.)
Sharing that 463rd position on the list are mom Imogene Powers Johnson, and siblings H. Fisk Johnson, S. Curtis Johnson, Helen Johnson-Leipold and Winnie Johnson-Marquardt.
The wealthiest Wisconsinite is John Menard Jr. of the Menard's home building chain, whose net worth is listed at $5.5 billion -- up from a measly $4 billion last year. He's in a seven-way tie for 136th. Next is "porcelain's prince of fortune" Herb Kohler Jr. and family, in a crowded field of 316th, with, among others, Wisconsinite Donald Schneider, whose father founded the Schneider National trucking firm. They're each worth $3 billion. Last to make the list from Wisconsin is William Kellogg, a retired Kohl's executive, who is worth $1 billion and tied with many others for 937th richest person in the world.
Topping the Forbes list is Carlos Slim Helu and family, worth $53.5 billion from their Mexican telecom company; second this year is Microsoft's William Gates, worth $53 billion; third is financier Warren Buffett, worth $47 billion. Slim's fortune grew $18.5 billion during the past year; Gates' gained $13 billion and Buffett's $10 billion.
The complete list is HERE, along with links to stories about how each billionaire amassed his (they're mostly men) fortune. Feel free to scan the list looking for long-lost relatives.
Yawn.............
ReplyDeletePete and Dustin-Would you be happier if the Johnson Family of companies left Racine? Would that make for a better community? I truly do not understand your proclivity to slamming this family. Is it personal?
ReplyDeleteRacine is a hellhole, it would be an ever worse hellhole if they were not here.......
ReplyDeleteI stood there watching the kids in the after school program today. It is really sad. Several without even a jacket. Obviously unclean bodies and clothes. This city is fragile. I don't know what sort of future those kids are planning. They have the odds stacked against them. We need to do more to encourage them to get an education and a good job.
ReplyDeleteThe John-Swines are nothing but greedy pigs who deserve to be locked up in Federal pens. However, before they move into the Big House, they need to have their filthy fortunes nationalized. Mega-wealth never grows honestly. The people's government should have no hesitation about seizing their ill-gotten gains and redistributing them among their victims.
ReplyDeleteAny way you look at them, the Waxies are pure evil. Their arrogance, artiness and avarice are the reasons why our people cry.
ReplyDelete8:38 Where is the slam? This story is in Forbes, the Journal Times and probably half the newspapers in the U.S. tomorrow, in one form or another -- each focusing on their local billionaires. It's pretty straight-forward.
ReplyDeleteThere is NO moral or ethical justification for billion-dollar fortunes. By and large, billionaires are elitist Sadistic scum who think that they own the rest of us as if we were their slaves. I live and work for the day when the Waxtrash will lose everything they have and are.
ReplyDeleteHatred and envy are much worse than greed.
ReplyDeleteThe working class guy who fantasized about seeing Yellin' Waxtrash Leap-and-Grab-Hold treated to a whippy-cane frolic on Monument Square isn't alone. If we bring in a proletarian regime, the Witch of Waxilla will be lucky if our courts don't let the Revolutionary Guards teach her respect for her erstwhile chattels.
ReplyDeletePerhaps the people's tribunals will order Crack and the Waxbrats to flog her fanny. (If the Revolutionary Guards command Crack and the bourgeois boysters to obey at gun point, Yellin' won't be sitting comfortably for quite a while.)
ReplyDeleteSick jokes aside, the Johnsons and their class brothers are evil incarnate and merit the extreme penalty--the total forfeiture of their fortunes.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous 8:20pm... You nailed it!!
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, I'll keep using Johnson products as usual and shop at Menard's on Saturday.
Wherever you find billionaires, you'll encounter social injustice.The poorly-clad kids one blogger mentioned didn't happen by accident. Each and every billionaire is a leech who's stolen thousands of ordinary people's fair shares of America's bounty while sneering at his victims.
ReplyDeleteI hope I live to see the day when the Johnsons are punished the way the old Czechoslovakian Republic chastised its rich blight trash. For starters, the government took ALL their assets. then it assigned the declasse elitists to minimum wage menial jobs. Furthermore, the regime made the ex-plutocrats' brats do chimp chores for chump change too.
ReplyDeleteA writer (Desmond Seward) who'd researched the Czechoslovakian solution to the plutocrat problem stated that the formerly-privileged pimps and punks were made to serve as orderlies for the enlisted grunts in the armed forces. Amen!
ReplyDeleteHatred and envy are legitimate reactions to social injustice. With this thought in mind, I applaud all loyal Waxbashers and pray that they'll witness the execution of our class enemies following trial and sentencing by a people's court of LAW!
ReplyDeleteWe're dumb in this country. Believe me, the rest of the developed post-industrial world wouldn't put up with a tyrannical tribe like the Carnauba Court.
ReplyDeleteMay the Johnsons and their unkind kind fry in hell!
ReplyDeleteIf the Johnsons, Boyds, Leipolds and other high-flying low-life polecats were so damned good, they would never have piled up multi-billion dollar stashes in the first place. Assuming they'd possessed hearts, they would have given away the bulk of their loot long ago. Thanks to the abovementioned kleptoplutocrats, Racine is a poverty pit fit for the Third World.
ReplyDeleteThe Johnson's aren't keeping any of you from starting a successful company, giving back to your communities, putting kids through college and employing thousands of people! You're a bunch of lazy, jealous fools in my opinion. Go out and make yourselves better, earn your own money and quit whining. The Johnson's, like any family aren't perfect, however, come on, Racine is fortunate to have SCJ here, without this company, this town would be bleak. Find something and/or someone else to pick on - really......
ReplyDeleteMay the foreclosure femme from the Bugspray Bank receive a tithe of the pain which she's dished out to God's poor. Though it takes twenty years, I intend to see her evicted from her compound by a people's government, marched to Monument Square in her WASP birthday suit and shot by a firing squad composed of local paupers.
ReplyDeleteAchievement: A-thieve-ment!
ReplyDeleteI challenge the Waxfilth to morph into decent human beings and share their obscene wealth with their victims.
ReplyDeleteComing very soon: CONFISCATION OF ALL ASSETS.
ReplyDeleteAnyone who thinks education is the way up out of poverty is crazy. I know folks with multiple degrees who get zippo from this system. As for telling poor kids to scramble to obtain a good job, forget it. The jobs aren't there because billionaire bullies have outsourced them to Changsha and Mumbai.
ReplyDeleteBillionaires are the enemies of humanity. In a decent country, there'd be bounties on the damned bastards.
ReplyDeleteMay I survive to spit on a legally-executed Waxie and put my foot on the rotter's neck!
ReplyDeleteMay naked waxtrash be whipped through the streets for the amusement of the peasantry!
ReplyDeleteYellin' will look pretty cute/ racing in her birthday suit./ Cur-t-ass and his brother Risk/ will run. Their pace will be brisk./Don't omit the Matriarch/ and the golden dogs who'll bark./Waxbutts on display we'll see/ once at last our folks are free!
ReplyDeleteAs far as I'm concerned, these creatures are in the same league with Caligula, Nero and Domitian. The sooner we overthrow their evil empire, the better!
ReplyDeleteRobin Hood, where are you when we need you?
ReplyDeleteForget Robin Hood--we need Marx, Lenin and Mao!
ReplyDeleteRacine - Johnsons = Benton Harbor
ReplyDeleteGo take a look around there, and see how you like it, you ingrate morons. The Johnson companies, and the salaries they pay to their employees who live here - not to mention the Johnson family themselves - keep this city viable.
If fate is with us, the Johnsons will soon join the Romanovs in well-merited oblivion.
ReplyDeletePredators who batten on the people deserve to be caged and starved the way the Cambodian and Laotian revolutionaries punished their ermine vermin.
ReplyDeleteComing soon: the REAL conflict which shall destroy AmeriKKK--the class clash!
ReplyDeleteClass war? The rich have been attacking the rest of us for centuries. It's time we understood who our real enemies are and what must be done about them.
ReplyDeleteIn a time of penury for the middle class, poverty for the working class and indigence for the least fortunate among us, hatred of the Johnsons is a sign of sanity.
ReplyDeleteThe Johnsons, Boyds and Leipolds exist only to exploit and torment the majority. Someday, when we as a nation cease to admire or even tolerate obscene concentrations of wealth and the fiscal fiends who accumulate them, the kleptoplutocracy will be crushed and its stashes will vanish into the public treasury.
ReplyDeleteIn the meantime, we can fight the Waxfilth in the courts and toss its myrmidons out of public office. May the time come when service to the Waxclan will be viewed as more shameful than the perpetration of a Class A Felony.
ReplyDeleteThe waxtrash and its lackeys have enriched themselves by gutting America's middle class and grinding our once-comfortable working class into the muck. Turn about is fair play.
ReplyDeleteI live and work for the day when the Waxclan will beg for mercy in vain, when the people's government will execute corporate criminals and when no American child will rot in poverty because an evil family grabs more than its fair share of our nation's wealth.
ReplyDeleteNobody should squat on a billion bucks and sneer at the downtrodden majority. As for dollar-sign dynasties perched on billions of bucks, they should be brought down and kept there, never to rise again.
ReplyDeleteWanted: MEN who will destroy The House of Wax.
ReplyDeleteMay the Johnsons perish at the hands of the system which they corrupted for their fun and profit.
ReplyDeleteIt took a Civil War to free the slaves. It may take an uncivil class clash to free the salary serfs.
ReplyDeleteBack in the Civil War, both General Sherman and Sheridan swore to "bring every Secession woman to the washtub." The coming class clash may reduce the Waxtrash oppressors' wealth to such an extent that they'll actually have to work for a living.
ReplyDeleteSeriously, the tyranny of the corporate class is a sign that the American socio-economic system is broken for anyone who wasn't born in the charmed circle. The time has come for the first genuine revolution in our nation's history,the populist revolt against War Street.
ReplyDeleteThe war of the wealthy against the workers has been a sad fact of American life for centuries. Now the time has come for labor to smash the loot lords.
ReplyDeleteLet the Waxies be tried, convicted, sentenced and sent away forever.
ReplyDeleteDear 10:14 PM, How much do the Waxscum pay you to insult the common man and his intelligence? Buddy, we're not falling for Horatio Alger fairy fibs and self-reliance crap anymore. We know that the system is rigged and we intend to change it.
ReplyDeleteJohnsons: Sons of SCAM
ReplyDeleteTo all of you anti-capitalist that live in Racine I say: "Get a life"! If you whinning idiots spent as much time working as you do blogging and feeling sorry for yourselfs you might actually become something. This is America and yes there are Rich and Poor, if you are not happy with this arrangement move your worthless ass to China!
ReplyDeleteAll that cash - and they still want a taxpayer-funded train.
ReplyDeleteI can't believe the anti Johnson in these blogs. I offer kudos to the Johnson family as well as all the other families of other industrialists that put Racine on the map. I also commend the Johnson's for being a part of the community.
ReplyDeleteDear 6:59 AM, In case you haven't heard, China is a totalitarian pseudo-communist country cursed with a ruthless entrepreneurial class. We demand social justice in America. The only freedoms worth having are liberation from poverty and emancipation from the economic oligarchy's obscene system.
ReplyDeleteOh I am an anti-Wax rebel./ I spurn each vile Waxpig's demands./ I spit on the dollar they worship/ and smite Waxsnouts with my left hand!
ReplyDeleteJohnson employees for the most part DO NOT LIVE HERE. They live in Caledonia, Oak Creek, Burlington. They won't live in the city. They want to manipulate our elections but they don't live here or use the schools.
ReplyDeleteGood point, Why don't they pay for the train to bring there fancy pants employees to our crappy city they won't live in?
ReplyDeleteThe day a worker can place his foot on a Waxneck is the day we'll be proud of Racine. We've had it with the Transcendentalist self-reliance spiels and individualistic crap used to make us blame ourselves for misery which the elite and its Ivy League lackeys coldly and with malice prepense inflict on us.
ReplyDeleteThe day some working Joe uses a Johnson's mane to clean his John is the day I'll brag about Racine. Until then, this place is just the Waxtrash's ol' plantation.
ReplyDeleteNeeded: Nat Turner, Sojourner Truth, John Brown and Harriet Tubman!
ReplyDeleteMine eyes shall see the glory of the burning of the rich./ They'll be chained to their cash stashes and we'll fry each Waxtrash witch./Then we'll roast the golden woofers, every he-dog, pup and bitch./ Justice is marching on./ Glory, glory, once they screwed us. / Soon they'll wish they'd never do-ed us./ We've learned a lesson from Brutus./ Like Caesar, they'll be gone!
ReplyDeleteWe've a duty to the city to end Waxtrash tyranny./ We'll help the Feds find the loot the Waxies hide beyond the sea. / Then the people's government will help poor folks like you and me/ while justice marches on./ Cherokee Red rats will rue the/ day their power will be through. Ah,/ we'll flush John-Swines down the loo. Hah!/ May we greet a Wax-free dawn!
ReplyDeleteScammy Waxtrash lies a-rotting in his grave/ while his spawn and spouse enjoy the dough he made./ Soon, however, the Waxtrash shall be afraid/ when justice marches on./ No more fortunes for the few. Ya/ know that cap'talists will screw ya/ if ya let 'em do it to ya./ Rise up! Don't be a Waxpawn!
ReplyDeleteWaxspawn to Waupun/ or else to the Club Fed./ But best of all, Waxspawn/ sentenced, shot, bagged and dead!
ReplyDeleteThe Daughters of the Motherland stand ready to execute the righteous sentence of every people's court.
ReplyDeleteNice to see our masters do well. Love the cute Downtown we gave them,love the nice tax breaks we gave them in exchange for help with Beckerville. Love the fact IMHO they destroyed ours schools driven other companies out of town all to preserve the low wage temp jobs they use all to enrich themselves, lastly I love the added amount on my energy bill because Sam did not want to see smoke stacks.
ReplyDeleteYes J-Wax our Masters
So individual fortunes soared by two hundred million bucks apiece. If memory serves me right, the Waxtrash denied their toilers and salary serfs the profit-sharing checks which the late, far-from-humane "Hib" managed to provide during the Great Depression. Alas, the fifth (filth?) de-generation is even lower than its alcoholic womanizing gross-as-they-got grandpa.
ReplyDeleteNeeded: WAXWACKERS!
ReplyDeleteBoth excessive wealth and extreme poverty corrupt their victims. For everyone's sake, the Waxies must cease to win too big at the expense of the majority.
ReplyDeleteMemo to the waxies: There's no romance in greed/ when the rest suffer need.
ReplyDeleteIt is better to shed light on a scandal than to curse the Waxdorks' mess. May all ex-Waxslaves help the Feds find the facts which will enable them to crush The House of Wax.
ReplyDeleteThe House of Wax: MELTDOWN!
ReplyDelete"Coming very soon: CONFISCATION OF ALL ASSETS."
ReplyDeleteFollowed by slavery for everyone!
---
"The people's government..."
The 'people's' government is a myth. There will never be and cannot be a 'people's' govenrment.
There is no such thing a 'the people'. There are different groups of people, but no single, monlithic group of people, and as a result there is no such thing as the people's interest.
Many things mave been done in history in "the people's" best interest, but it is always only to benefit a small group.
---
"Their arrogance, artiness and avarice are the reasons why our people cry."
I dunno...delusional hyperbole is what almost brings me to tears.
---
"If we bring in a proletarian regime..."
A proletarian regime??? What exactly is a proletarian regime these days? We don't exactly have a ton of factory workers in theis country any more. Is it rule by C-Store clerks and Wal-mart employees? Yeah...government by Jay and Silent Bob...sounds like a winning formula to me!
(Rememeber, no one with a college educetion could possible qualify for a proletarian regime.)
Hell, I doubt Marx would even say thet the the US even has a proletariat anymore. We have the bourgeoisie, the petit bourgeoisie, and the lumpenproletariat...but the core proletariat has gone missing.
Mistress Toughtoes and her learned colleague, Mistress Bootsie, Ph.Dom., request the presence of the peasantry at their maison de supplice to witness a demonstration of Wax-discipline. First, Dr. Risk shall appear on all fours in his favorite gold lame ballgown while Mistress Bootsie rides him around the establishment. Then Mistress Toughtoes shall personally bind and brand Cur-t-ass, said marks to be burned into his bare behind. (N.B. Since Mistress Toughtoes possesses numerous branding irons, she shall solicit suggestions from the proletarian audience.) Swine-ally, both Mistresses shall lead out Ms./Mr. Yellin' in a $20,000.00 power suit and distribute regulation judicial canes shipped in from Singapore to all working class spectators so that they may give her/him the bunwarming of her/his posh Waxlife. Subsequent to the rattan revelry, Ms./Mr. Yellin shall most humbly kneel to kiss the tips of the rods as well as the toes of the toilers' footgear. Admission gratis, but canes, crops, scourges and fustigatory instruments of all kinds for use at future exhibitions shall be gratefully accepted.
ReplyDeleteThe Alliance and Slaywax, Antiporkerated sincerely deplore the previous message and disclaim all responsibility for it. We honestly don't know where it came from.
ReplyDeleteAre you really trying to ignite a "class" war?
ReplyDeleteAs long as you're identifying wealth as the sole reason for hating that someone else is not in financial distress, perhaps you should 'fess up yourself.
Pete and Dustin, I challenge you to post your individual net worth. I'm willing to bet that at least one of you is in a different percentile of than the rest of us.
I can't believe you tried to throw yet another stone. When will you stop being so negative?
I love the earlier quote..."Hate and envy are much worse than greed." Personally, I think they are all equivalent.
ReplyDeleteWhoever said wealth was equal to greed? Why do we consider them the same?
Yay for capitalism!
ReplyDeleteWhy does Johnson Wax NEVER hire people?
ReplyDeleteWell, it supplies Mistresses Bootsie and Toughtoes with oligarchic degenertwits primed to pay penance at their maison de supplice. You'd be surprised at how many porker-ate piggies and honorary he-hogs in forceful dynamic powersuits are sexually submissive to any gal in boots with a riding crop who'll bend them over their executive desks and make them count to dirty-swine.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to know how much of there opperations over the years have gone offshore or been outsourced resulting in lost opportunities right here in thier hometown. How much time does the family ever spend here in Racine? Anyone ever catch them strolling the streets or bump into them as a gas station? How well DO they know the people in thier community?
ReplyDeleteDeep in their goot-loot guts, many corporate crooks feel guilty. Despite their supply-side propaganda, they know that they've been bad boys and naughty girls in severe need of condign correction.Seriously, I maintain from personal experience that our economic elitists harbor a hidden deathwish which induces them to provoke the proletariat in the secret hope that the latter may rebel and put the former out of their moneyed misery.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteOK, you haters are done.
ReplyDelete