From PRI, Public Radio International and KCRW Santa Monica, this is To the Point.

Ridiculous, ostentatious wealth in America.

Hello again, I'm Armin Alney, and this is To the Point from Public Radio International,

a daily look at the issues. Americans care about most.

America's median income is $48,000, but the starting salary for some butlers is $60,000.

Those numbers can be used to show that the massive wealth of the super rich trickles down to the rest of Americans,

but not everybody sees it that way. In 20 years, the number of billionaires has gone from 13 to several thousand.

Some see a permanent aristocracy in the making while the middle class struggles to pay the bills.

On to the point, how did the super rich get that way?

Are they good or bad for the economy?

On reporters' notebook later on, increasing the birth rate in Russia.

First, here's the news.

Support for To the Point comes from subscribers of KCRW Santa Monica

and from the Public Radio International Program Fund,

whose contributors include the Ford Foundation and the John D. and Catherine T. McArthur Foundation.

Hello again, Warren Alney, back with To the Point. Republican commentator Peggy Noonan says

America's new billionaires are so rich they look down on Tattie Old Windsor Castle.

On To the Point, how did they accumulate so much money? Will concentrated wealth trickle down to the middle class or destroy it?

On reporter's notebook, while much of the world is concerned with overpopulation, Russia is

trying to increase the birth rate. We'll heard about the day of conception. First, this news update

on Carl Rose's last day in the

White House, President Bush announced today press secretary Tony Snow is resigning to. Mr. Bush himself

...