Quotation of the Day…

(Don Boudreaux)

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… is from page 165 of the late, great Wesleyan University economic historian Stanley Lebergott’s insightful 1975 book, Wealth and Want:

There exist various lists of the very rich at different points in American history. They share a common characteristic: a substantial portion of the names on any list would not have been on a similar list a generation before, and often a mere decade before.

DBx: Pictured here is the richest American in 1982 – the first year that Forbes made its list of the 400 richest Americans. Do you recognize this tycoon?

I identify him beneath the fold.

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