The combined net worth of the 2012 class of the 400 richest Americans is $1.7 trillion, up from $1.5 trillion a year ago. The average net worth of a Forbes 400 member is a staggering $4.2 billion, up from $3.8 billion, and the highest ever, as two-thirds of the individuals added to their fortunes in the past year. Another factor: the gap between the very rich and the merely rich is widening.
paternalism (pÂ·terËÂ·nlÂ·izm), n a conflict between beneficence and auton-omy, such as when a practitioner ignores the choice that a patient makes because he or she feels that more good can be done by the practitioner's judgment. See also beneficence and autonomy.
Colonialism is a practice of domination, which involves the subjugation of one people to another. One of the difficulties in defining colonialism is that it is hard to distinguish it from imperialism. Frequently the two concepts are treated as synonyms.