Most Americans are not rich or even well off. No wealthy person in the world has made it on his/her own. Very few in the middle class really mind a society with a few super wealthy people. After all we all have different priorities. While some measure their worth by the amount of capital they own, others measure their worth by their value to making lives better for the masses.

What we all abhor is what politicians have allowed many of the wealthy to do. Basically, they have allowed them to extract the wealth of the entire country. In effect they have allowed a few to take the country’s natural resources and return little of the profits from those resources to the country’s coffers and infrastructure.

Inasmuch as all of our taxes have and is educating the population, was and is invested in research, built and is building our infrastructure, and defended and is defending the country, many of the wealthy have found ways to avoid paying taxes consummate to their real cost to society. The results are visible to us all, a failing educational system, a decaying infrastructure, and a safety net (Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, etc) in peril.

As the article below indicates, the numbers are out. We know who have pilfered the middle class. Now we must decide if those that have effected such unforgivable damage on our society will now get the ultimate prize to lead it. Be an informed voter.

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Super rich hold $32 trillion in offshore havens – Yahoo! Finance

LONDON (Reuters) – Rich individuals and their families have as much as $32 trillion of hidden financial assets in offshore tax havens, representing up to $280 billion in lost income tax revenues, according to research published on Sunday.

The study estimating the extent of global private financial wealth held in offshore accounts – excluding non-financial assets such as real estate, gold, yachts and racehorses – puts the sum at between $21 and $32 trillion.

The research was carried out for pressure group Tax Justice Network, which campaigns against tax havens, by James Henry, former chief economist at consultants McKinsey & Co.

He used data from the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, United Nations and central banks.

The report also highlights the impact on the balance sheets of 139 developing countries of money held in tax havens by private elites, putting wealth beyond the reach of local tax authorities.

The research estimates that since the 1970s, the richest citizens of these 139 countries had amassed $7.3 to $9.3 trillion of "unrecorded offshore wealth" by 2010.

Private wealth held offshore represents "a huge black hole in the world economy," Henry said in a statement.

(Reporting by Chris Vellacott)

Super rich hold $32 trillion in offshore havens – Yahoo! Finance