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Comment by gmarx | Hacker News Reader

When Fortune (or was it Forbes) introduced the list of 500 richest Americans (early 1970s?) many people on the list were angry and threatened to sue.

Now it's honor, a form a celebrity

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As was pointed out by a long-ago HN comment I've now failed to find, the tabloid "richest" lists measure particularly public forms of wealth. People who don't wish to be on such lists, now manage their wealth so they're not.

people are still sueing Forbes

  http://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-saudi-billionaire-idUSBRE9560Q020130607

Ha!

That was in the age of the Red Scare. These people had reason to be seriously concerned that they may find themselves on the wrong end of a torch and pitchfork.

Maybe but it was also towards the end of an age when people generally considered it to be in poor taste to talk about money.

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