I got my edition of the Forbes “400 Richest People in America” in the mail on Monday, not online. Because of people like me, not all of our post offices in this country will be closed. I get my newspaper delivered, too. You can’t blame the unemployment problem on the Larson household.
Once again, I just missed being on that elite list of multi-multi millionaires and billionaires. There were a few Dallasites and at least two SMU alums who made that list, the Hunts and the Fords. I placed number 86,321,008, up ten notches from my last year’s ranking. I was thinking of making a t-shirt to sell around the Hilltop. “The Hunts and the Fords Made the
Forbes 400 and All We Got Was This Brand New Stadium.” If I could sell a billion of them, then maybe I could make that list, too. And thank you to the Hunts and the Fords for our wonderful stadium.
I hope that all SMU students will read this issue, which I enjoy and pore through each year. There are short biographies on each member and how they came to accumulate such wealth. Many are self-made people who, just like you, were struggling students with unwavering work ethics who had big dreams, big plans and worked like hell to make them happen. Now, most people fail to make that special list, no matter how hard they work. Those folks end up with only a few million and live in Taj Mahal-like homes on Lakeside or Armstrong Parkway. But they’re okay with that.
The stock market continues to tell investors that our leaders still confuse and frustrate them with their lack of a plan for fixing this mess. President Obama says that the rich should pay more income taxes than the poor. My research shows that the rich pay lots of taxes while the poor pay very little, if any. The poor spend more, as a percentage, of their disposable income on lottery tickets than the wealthy. Since a lottery ticket is basically a voluntary tax, perhaps the president should ban the sale of lottery tickets, which would give a nice tax break to the poor. Because the Mustangs have a statistically better chance of winning the BCS Championship this year than one does of winning the lottery, maybe lottery ticket buyers would fare better by taking the points from TCU at this weekend’s game.
To escape the stock market, where I work during my day job, I took a drive over to the Hilltop last week. I considered applying for admission and getting a place in Boaz. Taking care of a house and yard isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. I could get a job on campus, ditch my car and take my meals at the cafeteria. Since I was a Fiji at SMU, I could re-affiliate and yell at the pledges, instead of my kids. I’d make up another t-shirt that says, “I Hang Out With Your Son Now.”
Get yourself on over to TCU this weekend and see what a winning football program can do for a university. We could win this one. Ever seen a Horned Frog cry?
Rick Larson is a 1982 graduate of SMU as well as a member of Phi Gamma Delta Fraternity. He has been a stockbroker/investment advisor for 26 years. He can be reached for comment at [email protected]
