The Presidential Candidates’ Net Worths

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• Yeah, I was hanging down at the bar the other day with a guy only pulling in $991,000. There's no denying he had the common touch though; he explained fully why we're all so bitter an' clingin' to our shotguns an' gawd an' stuff.

• @David: Glad to see that you haven't abandoned your defense of the downtrodden!

  If The Wealthy Barber wasn't lying to us, a net worth of $1 million is within both yours and my reach (as computer programmers who seem not to have made any crippling financial mistakes) by age 60.

  (Chances are, by the time Obama reaches Clinton's age, he might also have her net worth. Money leads to more money.)

  However, if you went up to me and asked whose net worth I'd rather have, I'd take McCain's. The First Rule of Money is that in the absence of other factors, more money is better than less money.

• And even more money is better. BTW: because I decided on a life of startups and contracting, I've been pathologically shoving every spare cent into paying off the house. Read what you will into that ;-)

  Also note that every one of the candidates are pretty close to self-made men, um, persons.

• What's interesting is if you take the average per year:
  McCain - 0.569 million/yr
  Clinton - 0.582 million/yr
  Obama - 0.028 million/yr

• Rich does not automatically mean elitist, just as poor doesn't automatically mean classless. Neither is universally true.