Hightower Lowdown

Do we riff-raff know how hard life is for the richyrich--the billionaire class? Its members have got half a dozen luxurious houses around the world, servants galore, private jets and helicopters, their own chef...but what if they don't make "it"?

The "it" is the annual Forbes magazine list of the 400 richest Americans. This is the ultimate social register, and this year's compilation shows that being a billionaire no longer assures you of making the cut. In fact, being included among the 400 now requires $1.3 billion in wealth. This means that 82 certified American billionaires failed to qualify. How embarrassing is that!

One problem for run-ofthe-mill billionaires is that lots of Wall Street speculators have zoomed to a level of ueber-wealth, thanks to hedge-fund and privateequity scams. Of the 45 newcomers to this year's Forbesindex, half made their bundles in such schemes--and bumped off the list the honcho of Starbucks and an heiress to the Campbell Soup fortune. See...it's a cruel world.

Now the high-flying Wall Streeters are frantically blocking efforts to tax their pots of gold. They wanna make next year's list!