We here at CCARL.com are not opposed to capitalism. One of the great American dreams is to be able to amass great wealth, and we support that idea wholeheartedly! Let’s take a look at someone who would make a great case study:
MR. CARL POHLAD
GLOBALLY: FROM: http://www.Forbes.com
Net Worth: $2.8 billion (BILLION!!!) // Source: Investments, banking // Self made
On a global level Carl Pohlad comes in at #258 on WORLD's Richest People (2002) "Now owns stakes in U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray, PepsiAmericas. Reaped $1 billion (BILLION) selling assets to Wells Fargo this year. Owner of money–losing Minnesota Twins, wants taxpayers to pay for new stadium."
The current world population is approximately 6.5 billion people. There are over 6 BILLION people on the face of this planet and Carl Pohlad is in the top 300 in terms of financial wealth.
NATIONALLY: FROM: http://www.forbes.com/lists/2005/54/Rank_4.html
With an estimated wealth of 2.8 billion dollars, Mr. Carl Pohlad ranks 78th of the 400 Richest Americans. The current national population is approximately 300 million people. There are over 300 MILLION people in the United States of America and Carl Pohlad is in the top 100 in terms of financial wealth.
GEEZ!! He's got MORE money than Steven Speilberg and Donald Trump! (Both tied at #83 on the list)
He's ahead of David Rockefeller, Sr. at #93
He's ahead of William Randolph Hearst III and Ted Turner (Both tied at #133)
He's got more money than the Cargills! James R Cargill and Margaret Anne Cargill (Both tied at #164)
He's ahead of Irwin Mark Jacobs at #181 and John Willard Marriott, Jr. at #207
And for those who do not recognize any of those names, odds are that you know who OPRAH is. The tabloids are full of information about how rich Oprah is, and all of the above people are still ahead of Oprah ("poor" Oprah is way down on the list at #235).
Let’s take a closer look at Oprah. At #235 on the list of America’s richest people, Oprah is only worth 1.4 billion. That is half of what Carl has, but is Oprah out asking for public hand-outs for private gain? Not to our knowledge. Oprah spends her TIME trying to make the world a better place. Oprah spends her MONEY trying to make the world a better place. http://www.oprah.com/about/press/about_press_bio.jhtml#5
Maybe Oprah could have a little chat with Carl, and if Carl came to us asking for money for the types of enterprises that Oprah is involved with, we might be inclined to say okay.
STATE-WIDE: FROM: http://minneapolis.about.com/od/peoplelifestyleinterests/p/richestminnesot.htm
There is only one person in the State of Minnesota who has more money than Mr. Carl Pohlad. Carl is NUMBER TWO on the list of the wealthiest Minnesotans.
The current State of Minnesota population is approximately 5 million people. There are over 5 MILLION people in this state and Carl Pohlad is in the top TWO in terms of financial wealth.
And we say, hey, good for him. we have no objections to anyone being obscenely rich -- money is great, everyone should have as much money as possible -- we wish we had more of it ourselves. But at the present time we don’t have any to spare, and if anyone can give us a good, logical, common sense explanation as to why the second-richest man in Minnesota needs our financial help, we will be glad to chip in.
Career
Born to a poor Iowa immigrant family in 1915 Pohlad dropped out of college to become a used car salesman (which in hindsight should have indicated something about his future career). In 1949, Pohlad went to work for his brother-in-law at Marquette National Bank in Minneapolis.
Five years later Pohlad was in charge, proceeding to build up the business into one of the largest privately held banks in the world. Pohlad built his banking empire through loan sharking, giving massive loans up front to corporations to be paid off at very high interest rates. Recent estimates put Pohlad's personal net worth at $3 billion.
Baseball Days
Despite his great wealth, few Minnesotans had heard of Pohlad until he bought the Twins for $36 million in 1984. At first Pohlad seemed like a hero, as the Twins proceeded to win the World Series in 1987, less than three years after he purchased the team, and again in 1991. The reality was, however, that the foundations of this excellent Twins team had been laid well before Pohlad's arrival on the scene.
Pohlad soon showed his true colors, proceeding to gut the proud Twins franchise, slashing payroll repeatedly as part of a shameless ongoing attempt to extort a new stadium from the people of Minnesota. Pohlad claims that Minnesota is a "small market" with a "poor fan base" and thus he simply cannot afford to pay any more that what amounts to the lowest payroll in the MLB. The truth is that Minnesota is a great market that as recently as ten years ago was leading the major leagues in attendance. Furthermore, Pohlad is one of the richest owners in the game, so rich that it was recently revealed that he has been giving other owners massive interest free loans in exchange for backroom favors. Worst of all, for years Pohlad has been one of the few owners making a profit, by keeping his payroll so low that it is below the amount of money baseball's luxury tax system gives to the teams with the lowest payrolls - a corrupt system Pohlad helped instigate.
Two Evil Schemes
Even though everyone agrees that the Metrodome is a terrible baseball venue, Minnesotans have come to hate Pohlad so much that they would pay any price rather than give the Twins a new stadium as long as Pohlad remains the owner. Thus, in recent years Pohlad has tried increasingly evil schemes to force a new stadium through. In 1997 he almost succeeded by leading the Minnesota public to believe he would contribute $80 million of his own money. Just as the stadium measure looked sure to pass, at the eleventh hour it was revealed that Pohlad had made a secret deal and that the $80 million "grant" was actually a high interest loan!
Now Pohlad is at it again - his latest scheme was a November, 2001 deal with baseball commisioner Bud Selig to contract the Twins and have baseball buy him out at a ridiculously outrageous price way above market value. Although this latest plan was blocked (at least temporarily) by a Minnesota judge who insisted the Twins honor there 2002 lease agreement on the Metrodome, Pohlad is certain not to give up easily.
Pohlad continues to insist that the Twins are a worthless franchise that cannot compete, even though anyone can see that he personally destroyed a perfectly good franchise that in 1991 was coming off two World Series victories in five years, had a rabid fan base, and was leading the American League in attendance year after year.