Wealth and Presidents

Read an interesting article in Forbes online about the wealth of presidents and where Romney would place should he win the presidency in November.

The Top-Ten List of Wealthiest Presidents surprised me, I must say.

Who do you think was the wealthiest president? Aristocratic FDR? Hollywood Ronald Reagan? Oil-field Bush Sr?

No, no, and no. In fact, two of those three aren’t in the Top Ten.

Here’s the list in reverse order:


10. James Madison


9. Lyndon Johnson


8. Franklin Roosevelt


7. Zachary Taylor


6. Theodore Roosevelt


5. Andrew Jackson


4. John F. Kennedy


3. Thomas Jefferson


2. Herbert Hoover


1. George Washington.



Wow. Who’da thunk it? Washington is guessed to have a wealth equivalent to that of J. Paul Getty and Paul Allen due in part to vast quantities of land he owned.

If Romney were to win, he would bump JFK down a notch, falling in at #4. In 2010, Romney declared an income of $22 million. Forbes estimates his assets to be $200-250 million.

In contrast, Obama had a 2010 income of $1.7 million (down from $5.6 million the year before), but this figure obviously does not include the major perks of the presidency, such as free room and board and transportation. Obama’s net worth is estimated to be around $10 million.

The article can be viewed here.

There’s a lot of talk out there of how Romney’s wealth compares to John Kerry’s, who ran in 2004, and the response of the media to both candidates. A few minutes of googling has given me a wide range of Kerry’s wealth, ranging from $240 million to $750 million. So, Kerry was at least as wealthy as Romney, and could have been up to three times as rich.

Remember all the media squawking about Kerry’s tax returns and how he earned all that coin?

Yeah, right.

And I do buy into the meme that it matters how the money was earned. I like the fact that Romney earned it, worked for it, built it and grew it, whereas Kerry married a woman who was heir to fortune her deceased husband’s family built. I do think that it matters.

Let me state it clearly here: I, Hopper, want to be a millionaire someday. Being a millionaire is a good thing. Being able to provide for family, friends, your community and yourself in your sunset years, offering value present and future, is a good thing. We should all make double, triple, ten times what we’ve made over the past four years!

The question is, under which president do you think that’d be more likely?