From: bstring@mainz-emh2.army.mil (BOB STRINGFIELD)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.african.american
Subject: Re:  New Yorks Filthy Rich...
Date: 4 Sep 1992 06:35:23 -0500
Organization: UTexas Mail-to-News Gateway
NNTP-Posting-Host: cs.utexas.edu

Subject:  [N.Y. Transfer:  NEWS: New York's Filthy Rich/WW]
Message-Id:  <9209040556.aa07852@VGR.BRL.MIL>

From:         "N.Y. Transfer" <nyxfer@panix.com>
Subject:      NEWS: New York's Filthy Rich/WW

Via The NY Transfer News Service ~ All the News that Doesn't Fit

A look at New York's filthy rich

By Andy Stapp

There are a lot of poor people in New York City. The homeless
population is estimated at over 80,000. Many rummage through
trash baskets for cans to redeem. The most desperate wait hungry
at night outside supermarkets for spoiled produce to be thrown
out. Last week, labor inspectors found Asian children as young as
ten operating heavy machinery in garment factories.

New York is also the acknowledged center of international
capitalism, with the largest banks, insurance companies,
advertising agencies, law partnerships, fashion houses, media
syndicates and brokerage firms. The headquarters of Pfizer, Avon,
Colgate-Palmolive, W.R. Grace, Borden, Amerada Hess, RJR Nabisco,
Philip Morris, and other industrial corporations shape the
Manhattan skyline.

On Aug. 15, the local news reported that a 123-foot yacht owned
by a New York gentleman had foundered and sunk off Cape May. All
the boat's bathroom fixtures were made of gold. Even the deck
screws were gold plated. The craft was valued at $10 million,
roughly 500 years income for the average person.

Living in clear sight of the city's appalling poverty are some of
the world's richest people.

There's billionaire real estate mogul Sam LeFrak. Mr. LeFrak
spends most of his days at the Downtown Athletic Club, the Sag
Harbor Yacht Club or at his estates in Key Largo and the Bahamas.
Mr. LeFrak is a member of the ultra-conservative Knights of
Malta.

King Olav V of Norway gave him the Royal Order of Merit in 1987,
simply for being such a swell guy. LeFrak has also been honored
with the Mayor's Medal for outstanding citizenship, the Order of
the Lion of Finland and the Order of the North Star of Sweden.
The Pope graced him with the Order of St. John of Jerusalem. His
numerous tenants would like to present him with their own special
award.

Peter Gordon Getty can't be omitted from any account of the
city's billionaire community. Getty, who calls himself "a poet
and composer," isn't exactly Shakespeare or Mozart. But he is
disgustingly rich. That permits him to say whatever he wants
about himself without anyone laughing in his face. Peter's
billions don't come from writing or music but from dad's oil
business.

Getty's no starving artist

No starving artist stuff for Getty, he composes his great but
little appreciated symphonies in a Park Avenue mansion. One can
only imagine the transports of delight his servants enjoy just
being near such genius. Getty is the recipient of the Golden
Plate prize for something wonderful he did but no one is quite
sure what.

The final two billionaire New Yorkers under consideration here
are Edgar Bronfman and David Rockefeller. Mr. Bronfman's fortune
began with the one million gallons of whiskey his father smuggled
across the Canadian border during Prohibition.

Today, Bronfman owns 34 percent of the stock of Seagram, the
powerhouse of the liquor industry. He runs his worldwide alcohol
empire from the 38th floor of the Seagram building on Park
Avenue, marketing Chivas Regal, Four Roses, Calvert Gin, Ronrico
Puerto Rican rum, Wolfschmidt Vodka, Paul Masson wines and
Christian Brothers brandy to 169 countries.

Several years ago, Bronfman was found guilty of 73 illegal
campaign contributions and fined $1.5 million. An ornament to his
city and his class, this extraordinary man has been named
Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur by the French government.

Capitalism's King of Kings

David Rockefeller is capitalism's King of Kings. Along with
brother Laurance, he controls billions in trust funds for 83
other family members known as "the cousins." The chairman
emeritus of Chase Manhattan, Rockefeller has plunged the city
into one fiscal crisis after another by shaking down the
municipal budget for extortionate interest payoffs.

In 1975 he effectively overturned New York's elected government
and forced the mayor to ax 60,000 teachers and other public
workers. David Rockefeller has been decorated with the French
Legion of Honor, Italy's Order of Merit and New York's Honor for
City Planning.

Landlord holdings, oil, booze and investment banking. Four
pillars of billionaire privilege in the country's largest
metropolis, generating wealth undreamed of in an earlier age.
Never have so many had so much.

In 1980, 4,414 individuals in the U.S. bagged yearly incomes of
over one million dollars each. By 1990, this figure had climbed
to 63,642. That's about .05 percent of people in the job market.
But the number of poor has soared too, their ranks swollen by
slashed social services, pay cuts and layoffs.

Those who possess treasure beyond comprehension and those who
have less than nothing; you find it all on the streets of New
York.

                              -30-

(Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted
if source is cited. For more info contact Workers World,46 W. 21
St., New York, NY 10010; "workers@igc.apc.org".)

-----
NY Transfer News Service
Modem: 718-448-2358  nytransfer@igc.org  nyxfer@panix.com


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