Cars and boats and planes

Readers of SOYMB must be tiring of the constant hapring on about the vast gap between the haves and have-nots. While Wall St pays itself $90 billion in bonuses millions of families struggle to put food on the table or pay the rent. The median American household earns a modest $49,000. That's a number that we can easily wrap our minds around -- it's human in scale. By contrast, Larry Ellison's 2008 paycheck of $543 million can be almost impossible to comprehend, so understanding that his earnings that year equaled the income of almost 11,000 families helps put the Oracle chief's impressive fortune into perspective.

The median household income of $49,777 can seem surprisingly low when measured on the prices of cars scale.

The Cadillac Escalade, for example, starts at $63,160 -- 26% more than the average household makes in a year -- and goes up to $84,790. For that matter, a BMW 7-series starts at $70,153, and rises to $137,000, roughly the same as the household income of 2¾ American families. And the Chevrolet Corvette, America's favorite midlife-crisis-mobile, starts at $48,950, or 98% of the average household's yearly paycheck -- and that's without a convertible top! For decades, the Porsche 911 has been among America's favorite aspirational cars: Starting at $77,800, the speedy little German car goes up to $143,800, or almost three times the average yearly household income. While the 911 is out of the price range of most American families, a few lucky people have both the means and the desire to stockpile the cars. Jerry Seinfeld, for example, has an estimated 47 Porsches. It's hard to gauge the value of the comedian's collection: Were these all low-end late-model 911s, the grand total would be $3,656,600, or more than the yearly income of 73 households. However, the comedian's collection is actually worth much more: among its dozens of higher-end cars, the centerpiece is a rare Porsche 959, valued at $700,000 -- or the yearly incomes of 14 households. Jay Leno. The Tonight Show host owns an estimated 100 cars, ranging from a 1906 Stanley Steemer to a 2006 Corvette. While the total value of his collection is almost impossible to gauge, one of his cars -- a Mercedes SLR McLaren -- carries a price tag of $450,000, or slightly more than the yearly salary of 9 families. Finally the $285,000 (5.75 families) that Paris Hilton paid for her diamond-encrusted Bentley GT convertible seems quite modest!
Oh , and of course , we cnnot forget the garaging. After buying a building for $880,000 in 1999 to store his vehicles , Seinfeld spent $500,000 renovating it. The ultimate cost equaled the yearly income of 27 families. The Leno collection is housed in a 17,000 square foot garage,

Then there is the boats and yachts of the rich.

For example, the Rising Sun a yacht once owned by Oracle CEO Larry Ellison and now possessed by David Geffen, is valued at $200 million. The Octopus, a yacht owned by Microsoft honcho Paul Allen. While Allen's 414-foot boat is 40 feet smaller than the Rising Sun, it is still quite impressive. Among other things, the Octopus has two helicopters, a pool, a 12-man submersible, a basketball court, a movie theater, and a recording studio. And, like the Rising Sun, it had a price tag of roughly $200 million. For that matter, the two boats have similar support costs of roughly $2 million per month. In other words, Allen and Geffen both pay the equivalent of 40 annual household incomes each month just to keep their boats in the water. Last year, the software mogul financed the yachting team that recaptured the America's Cup. At a cost of only $400 million -- or roughly the yearly income of 8,035 families

And now the aircraft.

A mid-range Gulfstream jet costs $39 million, or the yearly salary of a mere 783 families. For that price, the owner gets room for 12 to 18 passengers, a maximum range of 4,350 nautical miles, and a top speed of 585 miles per hour. Tom Cruise gave Katie Holmes her own jet as a wedding gift. A $20 million Gulfstream, the Cruise-Holmes aeroplane equated out to 401 households, roughly the population of a small town.
Boeing and Airbus both offer personal versions of some of their larger aircraft. A private-use Boeing 747-8, for example, costs roughly $280 million -- or the income of 5,625 households. Then again, at that price, the new owners would have to completely outfit the plane, a project that would likely run a further $20 million. And, for people who really want to push the limits, the Airbus A-380, which is scheduled to be released in 2015 or so, will cost roughly $300 million, or the salary of over 6,026 households. While expensive, the plane definitely delivers: Its proud owner could fly dozens of his or her best friends an estimated 9,000 miles between refuelings, making it possible to begin the party in Chicago and finish it up in Sydney, Australia.

The 2010 bonus allowance at Wall Street's top five firms was $90 billion, or more than the combined GDP of 13 countries. In terms of average incomes, this is equivalent to the yearly pay of more than 1.8 million American households, or almost 4.7 million people. That represents the combined population of Wyoming, Vermont, North Dakota, South Dakota and Alaska, with Kansas City, Mo., In a poll of 98 financial-sector executives 56% felt their bonuses were too low.

Goldman Sachs's Lloyd Blankfein made $8.25 million 2009, the equivalent of 165 household incomes. Martha Stewart's $9.7 million could support 197 families. $15.2 million that JPMorgan Chase's Jamie Dimon earned is equivalent to that of a 305-family town. And Abercrombie & Fitch's Michael Jeffries made $36.3 million in 2009, a princely sum that could keep 729 households. Oracle's Larry Ellison who made $84.5 million in 2009. Even this, however, was a significant drop from 2008, when he banked $543 million after exercising 36 million stock options. Enough money to support 10,908 families, Ellison's stock options yielded the yearly pay of a small city.With more than $27 billion, he ranks third on Forbes magazine's list of the 400 wealthiest Americans. This impressive sum equals the yearly pay earned by 542,419 average American households, or slightly more than the population of Hawaii.

Christy Walton, is the widow of John Walton, son of the founder of Walmart . With $24 billion in the bank, she's sitting on a fortune equal to the yearly pay of 482,150 average households. Christy Walton's wealth is the same as the combined lifetime earnings of 240 households -- if those households had begun earning at the time Jesus was born and were still hard at work. Three more members of the Walton family are in the top 10 of the Forbes 400. Combined, the family's wealth totals an estimated $89.6 billion, or the yearly salary of 1,800,028 households. In terms of population, this is enough people to fill Los Angeles and San Francisco, with 5,732 families left over.

Three members of the Mars family -- John, Jaqueline and Forrest -- share position No. 26 on the list. Grandchildren of the famous candy innovators, the trio has a combined bank account of $30 billion, a sum equal to 602,687 families. A little further down, New York's Leonard Lauder, son of makeup innovator Estee Lauder, is sitting at No. 66. Clinging to a comparatively anemic $4.2 billion, his wealth could fund only 84,376 households, a group slightly smaller than the population of Reno, Nevada.

Michael Bloomberg's, the New York's mayor, $18 billion equals the yearly income of a population the size of Montana or Detroit. Aaron Spelling's widow lives in a house that cost $150 million (3,013 households).

At the top of the pile America's richest citizen, Bill Gates, former CEO and chairman of Microsoft (MSFT), is currently worth roughly $54 billion, a fortune that's equivalent to the yearly income of 1,084,838 households, or just over 2.8 million people. Gates's bank account could cover the payroll of a population roughly equivalent to Chicago.

The top 40%, with an estimated 95% of the country's wealth, and the bottom 60% which survives on just over 5%. Another study concluded that America's richest 20% held 85% of its wealth.

Taken from here and here