Forbes released its richest people in the world list this week, and, to no one’s surprise, they are getting richer. Yes, my friends, there are more billionaires this year than last, and they have more money.

In fact,  1,011 billionaires — out of a world population of 6.7 billion people — hold more than half the world’s wealth.

And Forbes doesn’t think there’s anything wrong with that.

I do. I think that’s just crazy, and the root of a helluva lot of the world’s problems. So does Sam Pizzigati.

Let’s narrow things down — to Southern California’s Orange County, proud home to nine of the world’s billionaires, and that’s not counting Warren Buffett, who owns a vacation place in Laguna Beach.

Orange County’s nine billionaires, says Forbes, are sitting on personal fortunes worth a collective $28.2 billion. The half a million kids in Orange County’s 27 school districts, for their part, are sitting in considerably more crowded classrooms, after $500 million in budget cuts over the last two years.

In Capistrano, the second and third grade class size has jumped from 20 to 32 students. Last week, another school district in the county scrapped summer school for sixth and seventh graders and high school freshmen and juniors.

The United States, Forbes editor-in-chief Steve Forbes told a news conference last week, “is lagging.” He wasn’t referring to classroom cutbacks in places like Capistrano. He was referring to America’s declining share of the total global billionaire population. In America today, that’s what passes as perspective.

This sickness, of course, comes from the capitalist idea that we should all do everything we can to make as much money as we can. I’ve asked twice now why anyone needs billions, and no one has answered, probably because the answer is “They don’t.” Imagine what just a little of that money could do in the world, and the billionaires would all still be rich.

But we can’t do anything about this incredible disparity, you see, because it would just destroy the free market, and if we destroy the free market, then we’re all doomed. Me, I’m not much of an economist. I just know when something is fucked up. But Badtux, the Snarky Penguin, is also an economics penguin, and he’s been saying some really interesting things about the free market lately.

Rather than try to explain it all myself, and muck it up, let me refer you to Badtux. This, my friends, is recommended reading.

First up, there’s The Free Market Fairy hates healthcare. Then, there’s Pay day lenders and competition. Next, On the other hand … , and finally Efficient markets and the Chicago school.

I have no idea how much more Badtux has to say in this vein, but I advise you to check him out regularly. Or just watch the Recommended Reading section in the Politics sidebar.