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.
Communalism is a libertarian socialist political philosophy developed by author and activist Murray Bookchin as a political system to encompass his environmental philosophy of social ecology. Communalism proposes that markets be abolished and that land and enterprises â such as private property â be placed increasingly in the custody of the community â more precisely, the custody of citizens in free assemblies and their delegates in confederal councils. The planning of work, the choice ...