Merely questioning Ed's comments implied as "facts." I've read the WSJ
for
considerably longer than 10 years (usually only 3 times a week, tho),
and
respect it's journalistic integrity far more than, say, the National
Inquirer,
but still question statements like the above when I see (or read) them.

Stock ownership in a publicly traded company is fairly closely tracked
in the
US, by law, so the data supporting the claim of corporate control is
probably
there if someone looks for it and knows where to find it.

I'd be curious about the definition of "wealth", and even more curious
about
the methodology used to determine the comment that "85% of stock market
wealth
is held by 20% of the people."

Ed, if you sold me a 1-2-3 block and told me the width was 1.0000 +/-
0.0005
inch, I could measure the part and confirm the statement as accurate.
My crack
about a Democrat(ic) commercial was based on my experience that the
Democrats
are more likely to come up with off-the-wall statistics (like this) to
support
whatever bleeding heart cause they champion than the other guys (guess
which
way I vote?). There is no reasonable way for the average guy to verify
the
statements.

When my daughter was about 12, she told my wife and I that she wanted to
go to
"CEO school", "'cause they make lots of money." After a good chuckle, I
realized that if I had had that attitude 30 years ago, and actively
pursued it,
I probably would be retired and floating on a yacht like several of my
friends
my same age who are doing just that.

Mike Eberlein (I am encouraging my daughter to consider Pharmacy as a
major in
college (she is a freshmen). Figure they can out source the pill
manufacturing
to China (or Mars), but they will still need the pill rollers).